Unlocked
by Mommadon
Summary: Marinette and Adrien are so close it hurts; Ladybug is flirting up a storm with Chat Noir. Hawkmoth is mostly gone. Time to relax, right? A sequel to "Adventurer"
1. Chapter 1

_**Author's Note: **_

_Dearest friends and readers,_

_I am thrilled to launch this conclusion to my Season 4 head canon fanfic, "Adventurer." Adventurer began as a one-shot, that turned into a epic multi-chapter action fic. I loved writing Adventurer and sharing it with you all. But the story wasn't finished! After some time and distance and thinking through things a lot, I've decided it's time to write a conclusion and maybe even... *hold your breath* give you all a reveal._

_I hope you will read Adventurer before this story, because I reference things frequently. If you've already read Adventurer, I feel I must warn you: "Unlocked" is darker and deeper. I touch triggering subjects. I feel that this is the logical conclusion to a show that has placed the main villain as one of the main hero's parents, but that doesn't make it easier to bear. I will try to give you ample warning of triggers. I promise it will have a happy ending!_

_Thank you so much for visiting! And at last, I bring you... "Unlocked."_

_Here is a link to Adventurer, in case you want to start there:_

s/13429218/1/Adventurer

hr

Chapter 1

Lila Rossi was seated in a chair by a window, through which the autumn-leaf-filtered light was streaming. Her shoulders were slumped, and her eyes were vacant—just like they always were nowadays.

"Oh look honey, your friend Marinette left you a beautiful drawing, isn't that nice?" her mother was saying. Lila blinked slowly but didn't move. She never moved.

Her mother insisted on coming to her room every day, reading her stories, watching television with her, holding her hand, brushing her hair, and doing whatever else she could to still feel somewhat like a mother. It assuaged her guilt, if only slightly.

There was a terse knock on the door before it opened without consent. Nathalie Sancoeur, flanked by an austere lawyer in a grey suit, swept in. The sight of the woman made Lila's mother want to vomit.

"You!" she managed, scrambling to her feet and holding her arms out to shield her shell of a daughter from Nathalie, "You did this! You stole my daughter from me!"

Nathalie pursed her lips as she looked the woman up and down. "Ms. Rossi, I'm not here to validate your accusations. You had no objection to your daughter signing on as a _Gabriel _brand employee, and as I recall, were quite eager to grant us guardianship for the duration of the tour. The fact that she, of her own volition, breached that contract, stole thousands of euros, destroyed property, and…" Nathalie's voice drifted off expertly, allowing the poor woman to dissolve into shaking sobs of grief and anger. "But like I said, that is not why I'm here. You've made your case in a court of law. I'm here to offer you a settlement."

Lila's mother's face contorted in confusion. "A settlement? Why would I want to settle? You… you lost me my daughter!"

Nathalie thumbed through some things on her tablet and started ticking off her evidence. "Your daughter? The one you cared for so deeply that you didn't even notice when she was truant for nearly four months? Or the one you loved so desperately that you signed over your parental rights for… what was the figure…"

"_That's enough," _Lila's mother hissed, tears welling in her eyes.

Nathalie took a step toward her, "I know you're feeling guilty about the way you neglected your daughter. I know this lawsuit is just a way to save face; to make you appear that you actually cared. I know you secretly wish she'd just died and spared you from a lifetime of this—" Nathalie gestured toward the walking vegetable that was Lila— "and I know that secret wish is eating you alive. I'm offering you a way out."

Lila's mother sunk back to the edge of the bed and dropped her face in to her hands. "What did you have in mind?" she whispered desperately.

Nathalie dismissed the lawyer with a nod. When the two women were safely alone, Nathalie sat down beside Lila's mother. "Let me make all your problems go away. You drop the lawsuit, we will reward you handsomely. We're even prepared to clear all the negligence charges the on your record. I'm afraid there's nothing we can do for Lila's performance in England or the, er, fiasco here in Paris afterword, but considering her current state, we will assure that those charges are dismissed as well."

Ms. Rossi was not a stupid woman. She was driven, career-oriented, and the day she'd discovered she was pregnant she'd felt like her whole life was over. She'd never felt that maternal bond with her daughter that people talked about. Was she a bad mother? Probably. Was she negligent? Even she had to admit that was also true. But was she stupid? Definitely _not. _She knew Nathalie's offer was too good to be true.

"What's the catch?"

Nathalie swallowed and very careful spoke, so every syllable was crystal clear: "Relinquish your daughter."

Her eyebrows knit together, and her eyes bulged. "What?"

"Give her to us. We will assume full responsibility for her boarding and care. I assure you; she will be given every comfort."  
"There's still got to be a catch."

Nathalie's eyes narrowed slightly, "You will never be able to see her again."

The silence in the room was thick and stagnant. Lila's mother would recall this moment, in later years, with a distinctive memory of the stench of it: the foul odorous mist of silence wrapping around her and chilling her to her core. It would be a memory that would return in the dark hours of the night and cocoon her again and again, and elicit the quaking screams that pierced every thought and every action and eventually found her begging for relief from the bottom of a bottle, until, at last, twelve years later, she would be relieved from the burden of it all through the assistance of a trigger that was far too easy to pull.

But as the memory was being created, all she could do was feel the silence weigh on her as she pondered Nathalie's words. Here, today, she couldn't see how Lila remaining in the care of the State would help her at all. And the financial drain of keeping Lila here was already destroying her.

If she'd known how much she would one day regret these words, she never would have spoken them. But today, it was a simple solution to what she regarded as her biggest problem. "Alright, you've got a deal."


	2. Chapter 2

"Marine-e-e-ette!" Alya's whined over the phone.

"No, Alya, I mean it."

"But… but… but…"

"I'm serious! The answer is no!"

Alya's lower lip poked out and trembled, and her eyes went wide…

"Don't you _dare _do babydoll eyes with me," Marinette growled, the edge of her voice softening, betraying her. Alya leaned closer to the camera so her pout filled the screen. "I'm going to hang up on you now…" Marinette tried. "Oh ok fine but just _one!" _

"Yes!" Alya squealed with delight. "Of course, now I have to pick my favorite… should it be the one of Ladybug and Chat Noir hugging with the fountain behind them, or should it be Ladybug booping Chat's nose on the Eiffel Tower? Or maybe…"

"I'm thinking I should have never sat next to you last year."

Alya didn't make eye contact, as she was still thumbing through the pictures on her tablet. "You love me. You know you love me."

"Quit pushing your luck. I gotta jet. So, until next time, Bug out," Marinette giggled. Alya waved goodbye absentmindedly and Marinette hung up. She checked the time—still twenty minutes before Adrien would finish his piano lesson. Still, Marinette hated being late when she was meeting him, so she pulled on her shoes and thumped downstairs, grabbed a box of chouquettes, and bid her parents adieu.

The afternoon sun was already fading, but Marinette fanned her arms and neck out to collect as much of it as possible as she walked toward the Agreste mansion. She parked herself on her favorite bench just across the street from the mansion and pulled out the sleek silver cell phone Chat Noir had given Ladybug at the beginning of summer break. Her fingers caressed its smooth exterior, before instinctively swiping up and typing _ChatNoirIsHAWT! _into the password entry box with a little grin. He'd set up the phone, and it felt almost like cheating to change the password… Ladybug was not a cheater. Nope.

Marinette opened the picture gallery and scrolled through the photos she'd just finished sending Alya, determined to prove her best friend and confidante wrong. She had _not _been more flirtatious as of late. She had _not _been snuggling with Chat Noir. She was _not _getting closer to him.

The first picture clearly showed Ladybug's arm around Chat Noir's waist. Well, that one was taken out of context, as anyone with eyes could tell. In the second, Ladybug was turned away from Chat, but had a soft little smile playing at the corners of her mouth as Chat tightened one of her pigtails. Oh come on, he'd just said something funny! It was ok to laugh at his jokes! The third, Ladybug was positively pink with blush as Chat Noir's tail whipped out of the frame. Marinette zoomed in on this one on her own face, as she couldn't recall biting her lip and scrunching her nose like that before…

"Whatchya looking at?" her favorite voice in the world said into her left ear. She startled but had finally gained enough composure not to accidentally throw her phone. Instead, she seamlessly powered it down and slid it into her purse while turning to smile into those handsome green eyes.

"Hey, Adrien!" she piped.

"Seriously, what were you looking at?"

She chewed the inside of her lip and winked at him. "Mind your own business."

"Oh, you're going to be like that, then," he shrugged. "If you insist."

"How do you know I wasn't working on something for your birthday?"

Adrien's eyes widened, "Wait, my _birthday? _How did you know my birthday was coming up?"

She laughed. "Um, unless you somehow managed to change it, it should be the same day as it was last year."

He slid to the bench beside her, close enough that their shoulders brushed, and Marinette shivered. "You've got a point. But in my defense, I didn't remember you at that fiasco of a party Nino threw for me last year."

Marinette wracked her brain. It was hard enough to keep track of one life, let alone two. But she was getting better at smoothing over her tracks, and simply responded, "I don't think I could ever forget my parents getting scooped up in giant bubbles and floating into the atmosphere. But even then, I knew it was your birthday well before that party."

"Is that so?"

"Yes, I make it my point to know things about my friends," she smirked.

"Oh, that's right," he nodded with a chuckle. "So you'll probably know exactly what I want this year," he teased, leaning toward her slowly and dropping his chin so that his hair fell across his forehead and blended with his eyelashes. Marinette's breath caught in her throat.

"U-uuh," she stuttered, "Of—of of course!" she finally spat out.

"Really?" he crooned, now centimeters from her reddening face. "You think you have me all figured out? You know exactly what I want?"

"Yeah?" His hand slid across her lap and brushed against her back arm, sending fire up to Marinette's scalp.

"You sure? Because what I want, more than anything, is…" he sighed, his breath dancing across her lips. Marinette closed her eyes and braced herself… "Chouquettes!"

Marinette's eyes flew back open as she watched him sneak a cream puff from the box beside her and toss it into his mouth. She folded her arms grouchily and growled at him, "Have you no shame?"

He was cackling through his mouthful of crunchy sugar and delicate pastry but draped his arm around Marinette's shoulder and pulled her a little closer. Marinette tried to be stoic against his teasing, but he laughed so effortlessly—she loved it when he dropped his guard and let her see into his soul. She pressed the box of chouquettes into his chest and teased, "There. If that's all you wanted, I'll just be on my way."

"No wait, Marinette, come back," he giggled, gently taking her hand to prevent her from marching away. "You brought me chouquettes, I'm more than happy to give you another lesson in Chinese."

She nodded her consent and pulled out her normal pink cellphone to take recordings and notes again. Adrien began the lesson by reviewing the greetings, how to ask for directions, and a few other basic words that he'd taught her a few days ago. While Marinette had been practicing dutifully, she still had a long way to go.

"Ugh!" she moaned after messing up the pronunciation of _pàocài _for the third time in a row. "I don't even _like _pickles! I'll just not say that word!"

Adrien smiled and patted her hand tenderly. "It's ok, you're doing really well," he reassured.

She scowled at him. "You don't have to lie. I know full well that I'm lousy at speaking Chinese." She dropped her head between her knees and gave a pathetic little whimper. Adrien laughed. "You're really improving, though."

She flipped again to look him in the eye, "But not nearly fast enough! I need to be fluent, like _yesterday!_"

His eyebrows furrowed. "What's the rush?"

Marinette choked a bit. _Hey, Adrien, I'm Ladybug and I've been having you teach me Chinese so that I can go to Tibet and meet with the other guardians and get some formal training… _nope, that wouldn't work. "My… mom has been thinking about taking me to visit my uncle."

He didn't buy it. "Your uncle speaks French, though.""Yeah, but…" Marinette chewed her lower lip as she tried to think of a decent excuse. Adrien was better at seeing through her excuses than anyone else she knew. Where was Alya when she needed her? She ended up shrugging and grumbling beneath her breath, "I just want to speak Chinese, that's all."

He patted her shoulder affectionately and changed the subject to spare Marinette's feelings from any more self-inflicted barbs. "Hey, remember that amazing hat you made for the _Gabriel _contest last year?"

Marinette laughed. "The one that made you sneeze? How could I forget?"He chuckled in response, "Well, the contest is starting up again. The theme this year is shoes, and I was thinking—you should enter again! You're really the best designer!"

Her eyes sparkled with delight at his compliment. "You really think so?"

"I know so."

"Shoes… let me think. Shoes are tough, though. I've only done a couple of pairs in my life…"

Adrien smirked, "Don't be so modest. I'm friends with Chat Noir, remember? He showed me the outfit you made for him." Her jaw dropped. "I think you should ask him for the shoes back—just for the duration of the contest, of course—and enter those. He won't shut up about them; says they're the most comfortable thing he's ever worn outside of being transformed."

"Wait, Chat Noir really said that?" Marinette's heart was hammering. Why was it hammering? She took a deep steadying breath."Yep," Adrien replied with a coy grin. "Well… if that's the case… maybe I will submit Chat's shoes for the contest. Oh, and maybe I could also… as a companion piece… oh, that would be _amazing…_"

Adrien laughed. He loved it when Marinette's mind wandered off down the road-with-no-return known as creativity.

Both Marinette's and Adrien's phones (and Marinette's silver cell phone) started buzzing frantically. Marinette jumped, Adrien groaned. "Akuma alert, I guess?" he sighed.

"We _do _still live in Paris," she shrugged.

"It's been so long that I was hoping Hawkmoth had given up."

She laughed. "A week is hardly a long time, Adrien. Back when Ladybug and Chat Noir were just getting started, Akuma attacks were this far, if not farther apart."

He nodded slowly. "Well, I'd better get inside."

She stood, "Yeah, my parents like it when I check in during akuma attacks."

They stood and awkwardly stared at each other for a long moment. Marinette wanted to escort him inside his mansion, make sure he was safely tucked in his room with all the security gates and windows locked… or at least just give him a hug… but Tikki started nudging her from inside her purse. The truth was that Marinette and Adrien had been treading new relationship waters these last few weeks. It seemed to have started at the beginning of this new school year, though Marinette wasn't sure what had triggered the change. All she knew was that Adrien had gone on a few dates with Kagami before the summer. It had been painful, but she worked hard to make peace with the two of them being together. And then, about a month into the summer, Adrien had been whisked off to England for a two-week business trip, and his first day there he'd revealed to a massive press corps that he was in love with someone else. Kagami insisted it wasn't her, Marinette had been heart broken and nearly akumatized… and then Chat came by. Marinette had realized, for the first time since knowing Chat Noir, that her feelings for him ran deeper than 'just friends.' She'd kissed him, more than once, and just as she was on the brink of exploring a relationship with Chat Noir, there was an exhausting couple of weeks where Lila had managed to steal Chat's ring and suddenly everything was crisis mode. She'd learned to rely on Chat and had even told him everything about her feelings for Adrien, and he'd confided a great deal in her as well. In the end, Marinette felt like Chat Noir was the missing piece of her heart she didn't know was gone. She was on the brink of letting Chat know she was ready to advance their relationship… when school started again and Adrien asked her out. She thought she'd just go on a friendly date with Adrien, no big deal—and then he took her hand and she'd melted. They laughed together, they goofed around together, but they also had deep, serious conversations and Marinette had never dreamed, in all her abundant fanciful dreams about Adrien, that a relationship with him could be _this _great.

There was Chat Noir. The missing piece of her heart that she never wanted to hurt or be separated from. Her home, her rock, her most trusted confidante and her closest friend.

There was also Adrien, her first love, and rapidly becoming this warm companion who understood her and brought the best out in her.

Not for the first time today, Marinette found herself staring into the endless emerald stare and feeling split precisely down the middle. She wanted to throw her arms around him, hold him, kiss him maybe, and never let him go. But the nudge from Tikki made her stomach churn with anticipation—she was about to go see Chat Noir. She swallowed hard and reminded herself that she was happy pursuing something with _Adrien _and she was absolutely, completely totally, one-hundred percent _not _in love with Chat Noir.

"Uh, Marinette?"

"Wait, what?" she squeaked. He laughed."I asked if you wanted to meet up again tomorrow?"

She slapped her cheeks back into reality. "Yes. But I really gotta get home!"

"Yeah, I'll text you."

"Please do!" She waved, spun on her heel and raced to the secluded alley behind Adrien's security wall. After checking to see if the coast was clear, she paused briefly to catch her breath. _Get it together Marinette! This pining after two boys isn't healthy!_

"Tikki, spots on!"

* * *

Adrien stood rooted to the patch of concrete in front of the bench until Marinette had rounded the corner and disappeared from view. He was tempted to chase after her, make sure she got home safely, but Plagg was already poking his chest from the pocket of his shirt. He felt the familiar twang in his stomach as her pigtails bounced out of sight.

"Adrien, get your head in the game!" Plagg's whiny voice hissed at him.

He pinched his eyes shut and tried to focus. He knew the blind spot in the mansion's security grid and hid there to quickly transform. Mind still dwelling on Marinette's creamy skin tinted pink with blush, he vaulted over the security wall, checked his baton for the location of the akuma-at-large, took a couple of steps to get a running start—and barreled headlong into Ladybug.

"Ladybug!"

"Chat Noir!" they exclaimed simultaneously. Chat scrambled to his feet and held out a paw for her. Her cheeks rivaled the red of her mask as she took his outstretched hand. "What are you doing here?" he asked somewhat stupidly.

"Um, heading toward the akuma?"

"Right." He huffed a little laugh and couldn't prevent the brilliant smile that rent his face.

She didn't move. She dug her toe into the pavement and crunched her nose. He was starting to worry that the collision had hurt her, so he glanced down. Her tiny hand was still wrapped in his. "Oh, sorry," he apologized, releasing her hand and nodding toward the direction of the akuma, "Shall we, then?"

"Yeah," she responded, still somewhat dazed. "Race ya!" and then she was off and Chat cackled with delight as he leapt after her.

The last few weeks had been… complicated. But then again, not. Adrien had found himself over the summer—that much was certain. Marinette had been a big part of that discovery. When she'd divulged to him (as Chat) that she was in love with him (as Adrien), and as he'd thought through his own feelings and discovered a very real love for her in return, it had been a natural and easy conclusion to develop their relationship. But then Ladybug had changed. The image of her in his arms—cataclysmed by Lila's last sentimonster, barely breathing, him desperate to save her—haunted his dreams these days. But her whispered "miraculous ladybug" had brought her back to him and she had kissed him so deeply and thoroughly that, for the first time ever, he was _certain_ that she felt about him the same that he had always felt for her.

Then school resumed and Marinette was back in his daily life without having to come up with some reason for Chat to visit the bakery. He thought their friendship was strong and that some time together could be fun… He grossly underestimated Marinette. Within less than thirty minutes of their first date, he found himself falling for her _hard. _He couldn't believe he hadn't seen it in their first year of school together. Marinette was spunky, sweet, thoughtful, strong, and hilarious. When he was with her, he felt like home.

But Ladybug had changed! The akumas were far less frequent these last few weeks than they had been all summer, so maybe it was because he wasn't spending as much time with Ladybug as he had before… but every time they were together, she blushed. She stammered. And, boy-hardy, did she _flirt. _Chat loved the attention, but he inwardly grumbled at her timing. Just when he felt like he'd found someone else that he could have a fantastic, deep, genuine relationship with, Ladybug decided to return Chat's affections.

And yet, once again, he found himself flirting back, racing after her, watching her lithe red body doing impressive acrobatics and feeling his heart follow suit. He smiled every time she glanced his way. She was still every bit as irresistible as she'd always been. _Snap out of it, Chat. There's an akuma to bring down!_

It was a good thing the akuma ended up being quite ridiculous and hilariously easy, because Chat Noir's brain wouldn't shut up. He couldn't stop thinking about Marinette's adorable mispronunciations of _pàocài _or the way Ladybug's musical laugh rippled across the crowd of people bumping into each other and apologizing. As the two encouraged the stone-faced American tourist who had just been akumatized, Chat Noir caught Ladybug staring at him. He raised his eyebrows wickedly and flexed, only to be pegged in the head by Ladybug's yo-yo.

"Silly Kitty."

* * *

The knock on her skylight window startled Marinette so bad that her pencil slipped and left a long streak of graphite from the top of her design to the edge of the paper. "Just come in already, you mangy cat!" she growled.

Chat Noir tumbled into her room, holding his ribs in laughter. "I didn't even enter the room and you're already growling at me? My Purrincess, you've got to find a better outlet for your anger!"

"I had one until you scared me so bad that I did _this,_" she huffed, showing him the soiled design.

"Oh, _shoes? _Hang on, let me look at those," he grinned, poring over her sketch. "This is a nice touch, the arch support and wider toes, very nice. Oh, I love the tread, fantastic! Marinette, these are great!"

She smiled shyly, and admitted, "They're the Ladybug counterpart to go with the ones I designed for you. Like I told you in my text, I'd like to submit them to the _Gabriel _design competition this year." He set the sketches back on Marinette's desk and took off the backpack he was wearing and extracted a box. He opened the lid dramatically and revealed the freshly cleaned bright green shoes.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng, here is the finest pair of shoes in the world, which grants the power of Chat-Noir-awesomeness. You will use these to win the contest, achieve fame and glory, and to prove once and for all that Chat Noir is the greatest ever. When your task is accomplished and the villain has been defeated, you will return these shoes to me. Can I trust you?"

Marinette crumpled into a ball of giggles on her floor. Chat didn't twitch a muscle; he just stood there expectantly, awaiting her answer. Finally, she managed to stand upright and tried to take the box from him, but he held it firm.

_"Can I trust you?"_

She poked his ribs hard, and he gasped and dropped the box. She caught it and put it on her desk. "I'll take good care of your precious kicks."

"No fair, you're not supposed to use that spot against me."

"What spot?" she batted her eyelashes innocently.

"You know. The… the… the spot."

"Oh, _that _spot, huh?" she crooned. He glared. "I forget, this one?" she tickled his ribs again and he stepped back with a look of horror on his face. "Or was it here?" her eyes glinted maliciously as she attacked the soft spot on the side of his neck with her fingertips.

Chat Noir hissed and batted her hands away playfully. She chased him around her room until he tripped on her chaise and splatted across the floor. She pounced and tickled his ribs until he begged for mercy. Marinette released his ribcage and ran her fingers up the back of neck and into the hair at the base of his skull. He melted into the chaise. The purring started almost instantaneously.

"Hey Chat?" she started more seriously after a few quiet moments.

"Hmm?" he purred in response, now a blissfully content ball on Marinette's chaise.

"Thanks for letting me borrow your shoes. And thanks for what you told Adrien about them. It… really means a lot."

He grinned lazily at her, "It was the truth. Every word."

She blushed. "I don't need to win a contest to prove that you're the greatest ever."


	3. Chapter 3

_**Author's Note**_**: **_I hope you are all safe and well during this time of global crisis and turmoil. I'm trying to write a little bit each day to keep sane, and to contribute to the positive interactions between humans right now. It seems like the only thing I can do, you know?_

_Anyway... this chapter does contain a few implied references to scary things, as we learn a little bit about Gabriel and Nathalie's plans. I promised to share any trigger warnings as we go; this is me doing that. Please take care of yourselves and your loved ones!_

Chapter 3

Gabriel Agreste's pencil hovered over his sketchbook. It had been years since he'd just sat and sketch. Nowadays, he only ever approved designs from his team. Nowadays he gave the orders and people obeyed. Time was a commodity that should never be squandered on something as frivolous as sketching. Doodling. Idling.

The images wouldn't come. It was his last-ditch effort to jump-start his brain and it wasn't working.

Disgusted with himself, he chucked the blank book across the room, where it collided with the wall and slid to the ground. He dropped his head in his hands and pressed his eyelids with his thumbs in a vain attempt to alleviate the pounding ache behind his temples. He couldn't even _sketch. _What had happened to him? This man of vision, of strength, this pillar of decisiveness couldn't even put his pencil on the paper and draw a basic pair of trousers.

There was an emotion, bubbling in his chest, trying to escape. _No. _He swallowed hard and refused to let it come to the surface. Whatever horrid turn of events had led him to this shadowy corner would not consume him; he was greater than petty emotional currents. So he'd been robbed of one of his senses (or so it felt)—he would have to learn to adapt.

_But how?_ It had been over a month since Lila Rossi had betrayed him and stolen the Peacock Miraculous, then lost it to Ladybug—that brat. He hadn't been able to recover it. He was lost. He was broken.

No. He would not let himself be overcome by these wretched emotions. He would not be weak like his victims. He was Hawkmoth. This was beneath him.

He stood and marched stiffly to the window overlooking his courtyard and the statue of Emilie. "This wasn't supposed to happen," he growled to her. "Not that I needed the Peacock Miraculous to beat them; that was always just a bonus. But I wasn't supposed to lose it."

There was a soft knock at the door. It opened before he had a chance to respond. Only one person had the gall to enter uninvited—

"Nathalie. What do you want."

He could hear her breath and sense her emotions. Hers were the only emotions he was _that _close to—usually he only detected the strongest emotions of people nearby, but Nathalie was different. He had scoured the translated grimoire for a reason why he could always sense her emotional state, no matter the distance or the strength of it, but he'd come up short. Until recently, he'd felt a sense of pride that they'd entered into uncharted waters with their miraculouses; the only logical reason for there not being an explanation in the grimoire was that no one had ever used the peacock and moth brooches like this before. Today, though, he felt hollow. He didn't want to feel Nathalie's nervous edge. He didn't like that connection. He wanted to sever it.

She wasn't speaking. Gabriel became aware of the seconds ticking by in silence. Finally, he turned slowly to see her standing there, staring at him coldly.

"_What do you want?_" he snapped again.

She shook her head. "This is how you're going to end it, then?"

The two glared at each other. Nathalie's rage was churning. "I'm ending nothing."

"Don't you dare lie to me. All this time… I've never once told you no, never once asked for favors, never once doubted you. Don't you dare lie to me now. You owe me so much more than that."

He didn't break eye contact. "It's not a lie. I'm ending nothing."

Finally she moved, rolling her eyes and taking a series of giant steps toward him. "Oh come on, you call _that _trying? That pathetic akuma, an American mid-west tourist, forcing people to apologize to each other every time they bumped into someone on a train? You're falling apart, Gabriel, and you know it!"

He lifted a silver eyebrow. "The akuma accomplished everything I needed it to."

"Is that so? Then how come Emilie is still downstairs in a coma?"

He outright sneered. "How _dare you!_"

"Enough. So, you're no longer trying to revive her, is that it?"

He pushed past her and sat at his desk, aimlessly flipping through the designs on his computer just to feel important. "I need time to think through this. I can't let Ladybug and Chat Noir become complacent. The akuma was about keeping them frightened."

"I see. Well, when you've finally _thought through this_, please do share your brilliance. Heaven knows that's the _only _thing that's kept us afloat this last year and a half. _Your _ideas, _your _plans, _your _sacrifices. I await your orders, oh great one, so when you've figured it all out, please command away. That is, if I'm still here." Nathalie made for the door.

Nearly every day of his professional career, someone threw a threat to quit in Gabriel's face. But Nathalie Sancoeur had never been one of them. "Wait, Nathalie," he said softly. She paused with her hand on the door, chest heaving, frustration and anger coursing from her in stabbing waves. "You're right. I couldn't have done this without you." She turned back to him with steely eyes. "Losing the peacock miraculous has been harder on me than I care to admit. I… don't know what to do next."

Her brows furrowed. "So you're giving up?"

He didn't respond. Icy silence hung in the air.

Nathalie at last pinched her eyes closed, inhaled slowly to steady herself, and continued, "I'm not ready to give up, even if you are. I'm prepared to do this without you. I _want _you by my side, but if you're not able to devote yourself to this cause, I'll continue alone."

His response was barely audible: "I want to continue."

"Very well. Because the time for childish villains, cartoonish games, ridiculous attempts at taking the miraculouses has passed. We can't afford to squander the power we have again. No more attempts to train a new Mayura. No more wasted akumas, and no more leaked information. Everything we do will be with purpose."

He felt the old, pleasant greed bubbling inside of him. Or maybe it was bubbling inside of her? Either way, it was intoxicating. How he had craved it, needed it, waited for it. Of course, masked, carefully trained, practiced Gabriel Agreste knew how to keep the greed from seeping out (though he couldn't hide it entirely from his eyes). His voice was steady as he hissed, "What do you have in mind?"

Nathalie was pleased with herself. She parked herself on Gabriel's couch and relaxed. "We're going to learn everything we can about Ladybug and Chat Noir. We've both noticed that all the auxiliary heroes seem to be connected to each other in their personal lives. Perhaps Chat Noir and Ladybug are part of the same social group."

Gabriel frowned. "They're teenagers who enjoy video games and eating junk food. That's hardly headline news."

She shrugged and inspected a fingernail, "It's still information that could lead to more. We will gather information and use that to extrapolate their identities. Once we do, we will know exactly who to target."

Gabriel nodded slowly. "That's all fine and well, but if we learned anything from our dealings from young Miss Rossi, it was that the Black Cat and Ladybug miraculouses are more powerful than even the two super-brats know. It's going to take some serious leverage to get them."

"And once we know their identities, we will have that leverage." He saw her point, even if it was preemptive. "But that's only one facet of my plan. I have been studying the grimoire. It claims that damage from a miraculous is incurable, but there are massive gaps in the research on it. There are so many things the guardians were never brave enough to try. I have some ideas for how we can use the power of the moth to re-animate, perhaps even jump-start a damaged mind."

He reeled back in revulsion. "Are you suggesting that we _akumatize _Emilie? GET OUT!" He hurled his laptop at her. She dodged it easily and it shattered across the marble floor. His lamp was the next to be launched in her direction. "GET OUT THIS INSTANT, YOU VILE, BETRAY—"

She smirked and chided, "Gabriel, contain yourself. I would never suggest trying something on Emilie that I wasn't absolutely certain would work."

Anger still pounding in his veins, he paused and looked at her with hatred. "How do you propose we test your theories for using akuma energy to re-animate miraculous damage?"

Her smile sent shivers down his spine. "Gabriel. I've brought you a gift."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

**Kitty: **Hey LB, have you noticed how weird the akumas have been lately?

**Milady: **… what do u mean?

**Kitty: **After Jeune Paonne, there were hardly any attacks for weeks, and even the akumas Hawkie sent out were super easy, right.

**Milady: **Hawkie… I snorted

**Milady: **but you're right

**Kitty: **We've had four attacks this week alone, and not one has asked for our miraculous.

**Milday: **I… hadn't noticed. But now that you mention it, you're right. That's super weird.

**Kitty: **Think he's up to something?  
**Milady: **Ugh most likely.

**Kitty: **I think we should call in the team.

**Milday: **Definitely. I'll arrange a training session for this weekend. Looks like Saturday evening is pretty clear for everyone. Assuming they uploaded their calendars appropriately

**Kitty: **Sounds good.

**Kitty: **And… Ladybug?

**Milady: **What do you want this time? ?

**Kitty: **I was thinking… All the other heroes had their identities exposed to Hawkmoth by Miracle Queen. But, they proved last summer that they were still valuable and excellent heroes. I think…

**Milady: **Spit it out, Chat.

**Kitty: **I think you should give Marinette another chance with the Mouse Miraculous. We're about to do some investigation and we could really use her stealth, creativity, and enthusiasm.

_Oh shoot, _Marinette inwardly cursed, nearly choking on the bite of lunch she had just attempted to swallow.

"You ok, Marinette?" Mylène asked from beside her. Marinette smiled through her cough, hand still gripping the silver cellphone she had hidden in her open purse on her lap.

"Y-yeah, just took too big of a bite."

Rose and Juleka surveyed her briefly. "Well, like I was saying," Rose continued, and the rest of Marinette's girlfriends returned to their noisy chatter. Everyone except Mylène, that is.

"You sure you're alright?" she asked Marinette subtly.

"I'm fine," Marinette responded, though her voice was hesitant.

Mylène looked her over scrupulously. "What's up?"

Marinette shook her head. "Nothing, seriously."

Now Mylène rolled her eyes. "Whatever. You've been texting someone and something in that conversation just took you by surprise. I'm not an idiot. What's the matter?"

Marinette started. "Wait, how did you know?"

"Marinette, people don't just stare at the purse in their laps for the duration of lunch break. You don't have to be a genius to figure out that you've got a phone in there that you prefer to keep hidden. Which is funny to me; we all know what your phone looks like." Marinette almost choked again. Mylène's eyebrows arched. "Unless it's a different phone? Or a different contact you don't want us to know about?"

"Shh, Mylène! It's… not like that!"

Mylène looked her over before returning to her lunch. "I get it. You've got your secrets and you want them to stay that way. But just so you know, we like you for being you. You don't have to worry about us judging you for whatever it is you're hiding. And if you need some privacy, it's ok to ask for that too."

Marinette swallowed hard. "Wow, thanks Mylène." Her brain was twirling in that familiar _Marinette's-got-an-idea _way. She took another bite and tried to slow her thoughts enough to ensure that it really was a good idea before responding to Chat Noir.

**Milady: **I'm glad you like Marinette. I like her too. But I've got a different plan for the Mouse Miraculous. See you tomorrow night.

* * *

Mylène looked at herself in the mirror on the wall of the gym that Chat Noir—_the _Cat Noir—had reserved under some alias. The grey mask covered the top portion of her face, but she still felt uncomfortably exposed. She fiddled with the jump rope tied around her waist. Mylène looked up into Ladybug's clear blue gaze and fought the urge to pinch herself. Or vomit. Both were a real possibility. "Ladybug, are you _sure _this is a good idea?"

The black-spotted heroine squeezed Mylène's shoulders. "Definitely. You're perfect for this job."

She frowned. How was that even possible? Mylène had been akumatized once, a long time ago, but other than that, she'd had very little interaction with Ladybug. How could Ladybug know her so well to trust her with a Miraculous? Why this one, why now? Was Ladybug closer than she knew? Mylène had always considered Ladybug to be untouchable, but here she was, squeezing her shoulders and reassuring her that she—Mylène—was the right choice. Her head spun again and she looked around the room for the nearest garbage can—just in case.

"Ok, you guys can quit panicking, because the party has arrived," a familiar voice called from the gym entrance. Mylène's stomach churned as she saw Chat Noir strolling in, twirling his tail in his hand. Ryuko and Pegasus were hot on his heels, laughing and punching Chat Noir's shoulders playfully. Ladybug went to greet them. Not long after she finished kissing Ryuko's cheeks, Viperion entered the gym and quietly shook hands with the other heroes. King Monkey rolled into the room and proceeded to do backflip a couple laps around the track. The other heroes were still laughing together when Rena Rouge and Carapace arrived hand-in-hand. Apparently, they were a couple. Mylène's heart was racing as she watched the seven Gods of Paris high-five and hug. They caught up with each other, cracked inside jokes, and started warming up—if you could call the mindboggling acrobatics they were performing warm-ups. Mylène tried not to hyperventilate.

"Hey, everyone, gather 'round!" Ladybug called. They all mulled together. "Chat and I have been talking, and it's high time for a team meeting. First, and most importantly, I've invited the newest member of our team, M-m… hang on. Did you have a specific name you wanted us to call you?"

Mylène bit her lip. "Oh, I… kind of thought you named everyone?" They laughed. She hadn't meant to be funny.

"No, we've all picked our own names." Ladybug smiled at Mylène expectantly.

"I… don't know. Sorry. This is really new for me."

Chat Noir had always seemed to be a nice guy. He smiled softly and patted her shoulder. "You'll figure it out, I'm sure. Let us know when you choose, ok? Until then, you can just be our friend."

She swallowed hard and smiled. The other heroes seemed kind enough as well; they all were smiling at her, at least.

"Anyway. The next thing we needed to discuss is a theory Chat had about Hawkmoth. Chat?"

Apparently, the heroes called Chat Noir 'Chat.' Was she allowed to call him 'Chat' as well?

Chat Noir cleared his throat and explained how the akuma strikes had suddenly taken a strange turn. Mylène tried to follow along, but she was confused. Chat Noir kept using unfamiliar terms like 'grimoire' and referring to previous fights. It got worse when the other heroes—now beginning their physical training but still discussing the news of Hawkmoth's unexpected tactics—started pitching in their thoughts.

"Do we have any idea where Mayura's located?" Viperion asked.

"No; once we retrieved the Peacock Miraculous, we haven't seen or heard from her," Ladybug responded.

"Maybe she's behind this." Mylène's head whipped to Ryuko, who had started pacing off some energy.

"I doubt it. After losing her miraculous to Lila, she was pretty much a goner," King Monkey laughed, stacking as many weights as he could fit on a single bar and using it for bicep curls.

"Don't count her out," Viperion warned.

"I don't think King Monkey was trying to count her out, but he's got a point—statistically speaking, Mayura is no longer a threat."

Carapace and Rena Rouge were parkouring off each other's backs around the track. Rena Rouge called over her shoulder, "It doesn't matter who's coming up with this new strategy; if Hawkmoth isn't actively pursuing the miraculouses anymore but is ramping up his attacks, I want to know why."

"Hey, Mouse, think fast!" King Monkey suddenly barked. Mylène didn't even realize he was talking to her when a ball slammed into the side of her head.

"Ow!" she cried, cradling her ear.

"Dude, what was that?" Carapace growled, tearing after King Monkey while Rena Rouge and Ladybug raced to Mylène's side.

"Are you ok?" Ladybug asked her, checking her ear.

"Yeah, more surprised than anything."

"Nevermind Monkey, he's always like that. Sorry," Rena Rouge consoled. Mylène wasn't convinced. Her ear hurt.

"Guys, let's take a break," Ladybug called. King Monkey grumbled, but the others nodded and gathered back in the circle they'd started in. "I think we should do some teambuilding exercises next and help our new _friend_—" she glared at King Monkey, "get a feel for her miraculous. You all remember your first transformations and how awkward you felt, right?"

"That's a good idea, Bugaboo," Chat mewled. "How about a nice game of hide-and-go-seek?"

Ladybug gave him a warning glance, but consented, "Fine. Ten minute's head start. You have to stay within city limits, ok?"

"Uh, Ladybug…" Mylène whispered.

"Don't worry," Ladybug winked at her friend, "You just have to use your heightened senses and your power of Multitude to find all the other heroes hiding throughout Paris. Just a quick game, ok? Easy. Ready? Go!" The heroes all tore off in different directions.

"Hang on, wait," Mylène tried to protest, but Ladybug gave her a wink and flew out one of the gym windows.

Why would Ladybug call this easy? It wasn't easy. Ten minutes later, Mylène called "Multitude?" and found herself shrinking uncomfortably and looking awkwardly at eight tiny copies of herself. All the tiny Mylènes looked at each other, wondering what to do next. "What am I supposed to do now?" they all chorused aloud. "Oh, I'm the worst hero ever! I can't even play a game!" they cried in tandem. They all sunk to their knees, overwhelmed with shame and frustration.

Eight tiny Mylènes still only needed one purple butterfly.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Ladybug paced back and forth on a lower beam of the Eiffel Tower. She knew she was being predictable and standing wide out in the open, but she really wanted Mylène to be successful on this first run with the Mouse Miraculous. Besides, she knew the other heroes, Ryuko and King Monkey especially, would not be going easy on her. It'd been a while. She checked her yo-yo for the time: thirty minutes since they started the game of hide-and-seek. Ladybug gnawed her lower lip. "C'mon Mylène, you can do it," she whispered to herself.

Another fifteen minutes dragged by. Ladybug, quite worried now, opened her yo-yo and phoned Chat Noir. He picked up immediately. "Hey, Chat, any word from My…our Mouse friend?"

"I'm… I'm… I'm in love with two girls," he stammered, then the image of Chat flew sideways as he must have dropped his baton, and then there was nothing but his shrieks of pain.

"CHAT!" Ladybug screamed, flipping anxiously to her tracking device and saw the symbols of all the heroes scattered around Paris. He was on their favorite rooftop. She triggered the AkumaAlert and initiated a conference call to the other heroes. Only Viperion and Pegasus answered. "We've got an Akuma on our hands, what have you guys noticed?"

Viperion's eyes widened with horror, "Where at?"

"Chat Noir for sure, but only you two are responding."

"Ok, I'm on my way," Viperion answered. Pegasus simply started running. Ladybug zipped forward into the night, the familiar dread welling in the pit of her stomach.

Pegasus had already arrived on the rooftop when Ladybug made it. Viperion was close behind. Chat Noir was no longer there. Ladybug looked around and found Chat Noir's baton on the edge of the rooftop and collected it. "This is not good," she muttered, dread replaced by outright fear.

Viperion put his hand on Ladybug's shoulder, "It's going to be ok, we're going to find them. Do you have the whereabouts of any of the other heroes?"

Ladybug took a deep steadying breath and opened her yo-yo again. "No, there's only us three on the map anymore. I think Ryuko was close to the Seine, maybe the Pont de Arts, last I checked."

"Alright, we'll go there."

Pegasus withdrew his horseshoe and started pointing it, but Ladybug touched his arm and shook her head. "Save your powers, both of you. I have a bad feeling that we're going to need them."

The three of them arrived at the Pont de Arts a bit later. While it was getting late, it was still a Saturday evening in Paris, France. Normally the Pont de Arts was packed with people. Now, it was eerily quiet. Ladybug looked around, trying to find some evidence of what happened. Upriver, maybe half a block or so, was a park bench that looked like it had been slashed with a sword. "Ryuko," Ladybug muttered, running toward it. "Someone attacked her here. Viperion, this is going to sound strange… but you know how you're the snake, right?"

The corner of Viperion's mouth raised slightly. "Sass taught me, yes." He got to work fingering the splintered wood of the bench. His tongue poked out between his lips subtly, and he continued walking upriver. "The heat trail points in this direction. Her scent is fading too fast for me to follow."

The three ran in the direction Viperion had indicated. After a few blocks, Ladybug heard something. "Shh!" she warned, and they padded forward silently, Ladybug leaning into her ears. "It sounds like… crying. This way." Viperion nodded his agreement and they followed the street up to a deserted square. "Ryuko? Chat? Anyone?" Ladybug called.

"Don't come any closer!" Rena Rouge's voice warned, followed by a blood curdling scream.

"Second Chance!" Viperion activated, which triggered a primal protective instinct in Ladybug. She charged into the square, expecting to find the akuma behind a tree or something, but there was nothing.

"Huh," she queried, turning to see Pegasus and Viperion looking just as confused as she was.

"Run!" a tiny voice below her called. Ladybug looked down to see Mylène—maybe ten centimeters in height but missing her jump rope tail—racing at her with a panicked look. Something else was chasing after her.

Pegasus dropped to his knee, howling in pain. "Stop! Ow! Please, release me!"

A tiny voice, barely audible, hissed, "Tell me your secrets, or you will suffer!"

Pegasus writhed on the ground, lashing back and forth against the pain. "Stop! Stop! I… I… I don't really need glasses, ok? I just wear them to look smarter. Please let me go!"

"Tell me everything about you. All your secrets to success."

Ladybug looked over Pegasus and saw a tiny grey creature latched onto the back of his neck, with a thin pink rope wrapped around his throat. "Hang on, Pegasus!" she cried, as she grabbed hold and yanked. He screamed. The creature broke free but struggled against her grip. It was a person, Ladybug realized with horror. A tiny, grey person with a long wriggling pink tail.

The little thing wriggled from her grasp and charged up her arm toward her own neck. Ladybug shrieked as she clawed at the thing and managed to bat it away. She felt a crawling sensation on her leg and looked down to see another creature making its way up her body. She grabbed it and was able to make out small mouse-like features on it. Oh no. Mylène.

"Hang on, I'll save you," she croaked as she fought with the creature. The one she'd flung across the square had made it back to her and was pouncing. She hurled the one in her fist and tried to stop the second, but then a third showed up on her ankle, then a fourth and a fifth. Ladybug swatted, squirmed, shrieked, and fought in vain as she was swarmed by the fierce akumas.

A horrid, piercing pain caught her at the base of her skull. Her senses shut off—the world black and silent and scentless. Her brain rattled with a command that overwhelmed her.

_Tell me your secrets._

"Stop! Please!" She fought with every ounce of strength she had.

_Tell me your name._

It hurt. No—hurt wasn't strong enough of an expression. Her nerves had exploded, her blood must be erupting from every orifice, she must be dying. This must be death.

_Tell me your name._

"I'm.. I'm Ma—"

A whisper, a quiet, distant voice she barely recognized from a life long past—"Cataclysm!"

Ladybug was free. She could see and feel again, like stepping into the light after an eternity underground. Her head suddenly clear, she recognized the other heroes around her, battling tiny grey creatures.

"There's still six of them," Ryuko yelled. The steel of her sword flashed as she sliced one away from Ladybug's leg—expertly avoiding her flesh.

"Mirage!" Rena Rouge's voice called, and suddenly there were more superheroes surrounding them. One of the tiny grey creatures pounced on a fake-Ladybug, who disappeared in smoke but clued them into the creature's whereabouts. Ryuko tore after that one with her sword.

"Get all the tails!" Chat hollered, and Ryuko nodded, slashing her sword down and divided the little pink tail with a sickening thud. The grey creature looked confused, then disintegrated.

"One down!" she cried in triumph.

Two more creatures were closing on Carapace. "Shell-ter!" he screamed, knocking the creatures back, but they landed on King Monkey. Monkey started screaming hysterically, swatting and batting at anything he could reach.

"Get them off me get them off me get them off me! UPROAR!" A squeaky toy landed in his hand just as Viperion screamed in pain.

"My name is Luka Couffaine! I'm the son of Anarka Couffaine and Jagged Stone! He doesn't know I'm his son—mum never told him!"

"Viperion!" Ladybug hollered, racing toward him.

The squeaky toy hit the back of Viperion's neck before Ladybug's yo-yo could. The akuma's power broke and it fell off. Ladybug grabbed the creature and yanked off the tail. "Four left!" she updated.

"Make that three!" Pegasus whooped from King Monkey's side.

Carapace's shield whizzed past Ladybug's face and she leapt back in surprise. It was targeting a creature racing up Rena Rouge's side, but it was too late. "I do know Ladybug's identity, and her name is—"

Viperion suddenly appeared next to her with the mini-akuma's tail in his hand. "Not this time," he muttered with satisfaction, but looked at Ladybug with unexpected warmth. "Two to go."

With no time to ponder his strange look, Ladybug cried, "Lucky Charm!" and a jar of molasses thudded in her hands. She rapidly surveyed her team. There were three little akumas left, but nobody was currently under attack. Chat, Rena Rouge, Carapace, and King Monkey had all used their powers. Viperion was also running out of time. She locked eyes with Pegasus and Ryuko, and the plan came to her. She tossed the bottle of molasses and it crunched on the pavement, splattering thick black goo all over the ground.

"Ryuko, time for a storm! Pegasus, right here!" The two nodded their understanding.

"Wind Dragon!"

"Voyage!"

Ladybug hooked her yo-yo to a light pole as a massive windstorm lifted her off her feet. The other heroes were holding on to trees, benches, and poles as best they could, with varying degrees of success. King Monkey rammed his jingu bang into the ground and held on; Viperion grabbed his tail. Rena Rouge had managed to lock her arms around a tree. Pegasus's portal opened just over the puddle of molasses. Chat Noir scrambled for Carapace but managed to get caught up in the windstorm with his friend. The two were lifted off the ground in a swirl of leaves and debris and—Ladybug's heart skipped a beat—tiny, blurred grey creatures. Once high enough off the ground, the wind directed everything into the upper half of the portal and they were transported to the puddle of molasses, where they landed with a squelching thud. Chat Noir and Carapace were able to make it back to their feet, but the tiny creatures were stuck to the mess. Together, Chat and Ladybug made quick work of removing the last two tails. As the final akuma disappeared, the dislodged tails zoomed together to form a single pink jump rope that wrapped around the non-akumatized Mylène, who grew to full height. She shook her head as the purple akuma winged into the sky.

"No more evil-doing for you," Ladybug panted. "Time to de-evilize; bye-bye little butterfly." The white butterfly was released and Ladybug looked over her battered team. "Miraculous Ladybug!"

Once the magic cleared the area, Ladybug forewent their traditional fist-bump and opted for a group hug around Mylène.

"I'm s-s-so s-s-sorry!" she wailed, her head in her hands.

"Please don't apologize," Ladybug consoled. "None of you. This is entirely my fault. I should have known you needed more training and time."

"No, Ladybug," Chat Noir reminded her firmly, "you told me once, and I'll remind you forever: This is _Hawkmoth's _fault. He's the only villain out there. He's the one using everyone's natural, normal concerns against them. I'm sorry we weren't better friends, Little Mouse, but you did nothing wrong."

Ladybug nodded and Mylène sniffled before making eye contact with the team again. "It was so, so strange. I've been akumatized before, and this was so different. Part of me was still me, but part of me wasn't. I had no control over the others. I tried to release multitude and stop them, but they attacked me as well. It was like he was in my brain-" Mylène shuddered, "-it's fuzzy, but...Ladybug, I think Hawkmoth might have gotten more information than what was said out loud." Ladybug nodded forlornly. Everyone looked at their shoes.

The group was silent with shock. "Does anyone know what he found out?" Ladybug tentatively asked. Seven heads nodded solemnly and a tear slipped down Mylène's cheek. "Alright, we'll discuss everything later this evening via chat." Ladybug turned to Mylène. "Thank you. This has got to be horrible for you. I'm sorry I brought you into this mess."

Chat Noir's ring started beeping the loudest. Viperion's transformation had already fallen.

Ladybug cleared her throat. "You all need to get home. Little Mouse? Hold on to the Miraculous for n ow, ok?" Mylène's smile was sweet and genuine as she nodded. The team huddled once more for a hug, and then split in different directions, except for Luka, who was gazing at Ladybug.

"Marinette. We need to talk."

* * *

_**Author's note: **Phew! Not going to lie, this last week or two has been hard! I'm sure everyone is feeling effects of the pandemic right now, whether economic, mental, emotional, or physical. I sure am. I want desperately to write, but it's hard to get the creativity flowing when there's so much anxiety and new responsibility. I'm sorry if I can't update this as frequently as I would like. I waited to start posting until March, thinking that my school and family schedule would have relaxed a bit. Ha! As a full-time student with four kids, this has been very overwhelming. Aaaand now I'm just venting._

_I wish you all a blessed weekend/week. Stay safe and healthy. Feel free to drop me a line, whether about the story or venting yourself. We all need each other right now. 3, Mommadon_


	6. Chapter 6

_**Author's note:** __In Adventurer chapter 1, Marinette confides in Alya and tells her identity. Just so everyone's clear here. :)_

_I hope you're all doing well! I'm sorry I'm so slow writing. I am still struggling to find balance and creativity amid a pandemic, as my whole life and future has been thrown into chaos along with everyone else's. I care about you all, my dear readers, and hope you are safe and healthy. _

* * *

Chapter 6

Sass and Tikki were seated on Marinette's computer desk, refueling with a plate of cookies and soft boiled eggs. Luka was sitting by Marinette on her chaise, her head hanging between her knees. Luka rubbed slow circles into her back.

"You're _sure _Hawkmoth didn't find out?"

"Yes. Of all the things he discovered today, your identity was not one of them."

Marinette still checked with Sass, who nodded. "The Ssssecond Chancssse completely resssetsss the timeline. Only the Bearer of the Sssnake has any memory of what occurred. Viperion wasss careful to ressset the timeline where Rena Rouge completed her sssentence revealing your name."

She took a breath and looked into Luka's ice blue eyes. "You promise you won't say anything, of course?"

"Naturally. But Marinette, I just saw dozens of examples of what happens when Hawkmoth discovers your identity, and though each were only a few minutes long, it was…" his voice broke and he swallowed hard, "Awful. Marinette, he knows Rena Rouge is a keeper of your secret. He knows that I know as well. He's not going to go easy on either of us."

Marinette chewed her lower lip. "Tikki, Sass, you know the powers better than I do, is there something we can do?"

Tikki pondered, "Short of the Wish with the Ladybug and Black Cat miraculous, there's no way to re-write reality—and you know the price associated with that. What's heard can't be unheard. What's known can't be unknown."

Luka took Marinette's hands in his. Something in her stirred. She had dismissed him so casually, and here he was, so protective and so understanding. She didn't deserve him. "Marinette, I know what we need to do." His face was so sad.

"Please don't say it."

"It's either that or you have to go. Paris _needs _Ladybug. Paris _needs _Marinette Dupain-Cheng."

"But I need you!"

He stroked her cheek with a thumb. "I value your friendship more than anything, Marinette. More than staying here, even. Besides, you've got Adrien."

She smiled ironically. "That's so unimportant right now. I've hurt you and you're not safe because of me."

He shook his head and pressed a finger to her lips, "No, this whole city, including me, are only safe because of you. You're going to bring down Hawkmoth, and when you do, we're going to celebrate. All night. A big huge raging party across all of Paris. Dad and I will do a duet. It's going to be epic."

She laughed through the tears she was surprised to find on her face. "Promise?"

"Promise."

Marinette nodded and painfully dialed Alya.

"Hey, LB!" she greeted. Marinette's heart nearly disintegrated.

"Alya? Can you come over right now? No, wait, I'll come there."

"Marinette? Is everything alright?"

"No, it's not. I… I'm so sorry, Alya. This is killing me." Luka urged her on with a knowing nod, "Hawkmoth is aware that you're my confidant. I've got to get you out of the city; tonight, preferably."

Alya went silent. Marinette braced herself for the onslaught of protests that was about to come.

But they didn't. The reality was so much worse: "Ok."

* * *

Ladybug and Luka Couffaine landed softly in the alleyway beside the apartment complex the Cesaire family lived in. It was now close to midnight, but this was the safest way to approach.

"Hang on," Luka warned. He scanned the street before letting Ladybug out of the shadows. A sleek silver sedan drove by. It was painfully familiar.

"What is Adrien's bodyguard driving around here for at this time of night?" she asked quietly.

Luka shrugged. "It might be innocent. I doubt the guy lives at the mansion, right?"

Ladybug pondered, "Maybe we should have used the horse miraculous to teleport straight into their living room."

"No," Luka shook his head fervently, "This is safer. If someone's already there, you won't be in your street clothes."

She accepted that and Ladybug listened carefully for any motion nearby. When she felt confident the coast was clear, the two slipped around the corner of the apartment building and up the stairs to the Cesaire residence. She knocked as softly as she could and immediately the door was opened. The whole Cesaire family was sitting in the living room, staring at each other—clearly in shock.

"Ladybug, come in," Alya's father whispered.

"I take it she told you a little bit of our problem," Ladybug replied.

Alya's mother, holding the twins in her arms, nodded. "We've made a family decision," she announced decisively, even though her hands were trembling, "and we're staying together. We'll leave Paris tonight, but we're staying together. Right?" Nora nodded. The twins were crying, but they agreed.

The only person who hadn't moved from her position by the door was Alya. She was sitting there, staring at her hands, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Alya?" Ladybug whispered.

"I… I can't say goodbye," her voice quavered. "I know I have to, but I can't."

"I know."

Ladybug took one step and Alya closed the distance between them simultaneously. The two girls held each other in an embrace for a very long time. When, at last, they released each other, Luka had helped the twins assemble their backpacks with their toys.

"Alright, Luka has the address of the safe house we're sending you to. I don't know it, so even if I'm compromised, Hawkmoth won't be able to find you. Remember, don't contact us. Alya will be able to stay in contact with me through Trixx, but it's incredibly dangerous for anyone to know where you are or what you're doing." Ladybug looked over their broken faces and choked back a sob. "We're going to bring him down and get you home very soon, ok?"

The six Cesaires sniffed and stood. They had a few suitcases of belongings between them. Luka had confidence in the safe house he knew about, and Ladybug had confidence in him, so she knew they would be alright. Still, she felt like a monster for asking them to leave their home on her behalf. But what else could be done? Luka was right—Hawkmoth had become too great a threat to leave them here, and Paris needed Ladybug more than anything.

There was an anxious knock on the door, and everyone froze.

"Did anyone else know you were leaving tonight?" Luka whispered. The Cesaires shook their heads in panic.

"Nobody move!" Ladybug hissed. She pulled out her yo-yo and her muscles tensed for an attack.

"Alya!" a muffled tenor voice came from the other side of the door, "Alya, it's me!"

Alya cried out and pulled the door open and Nino tumbled inside.

"Nino, what are you doing here?" Alya's father asked.

"I'm coming with you."

"I don't know what you're talking—"

"I'm _coming with you _and that's final. Hawkmoth knows I'm Chat Noir's confidante and that's just as dangerous as the position you're in. Besides, I need to be with you, Als. I can't breathe without you. You're my whole world."

"Watch it, kid," Nora warned as Nino raced to hold Alya. They glared at each other, but their eyes twinkled.

"Of course, it's up to your parents-?" He looked at them hopefully. They looked at each other, at Luka, and at their children. Finally, they nodded.

"It's settled then," Ladybug sighed, heart aching. She opened her yo-yo and extracted a slim pair of black sunglasses. She put them on and they instantly turned clear. "Kaalki, Tikki, unify," she breathed. Nobody started at the shimmering light in the room.

Nino gave Ladybug a long hug. "Take care of the team, ok?"

"You too," she responded. He took the turtle-shell bracelet from his wrist and handed it to her. She placed his miraculous in her yo-yo compartment.

Luka was next. "Marinette," he whispered in her ear, "Take care of yourself too. Not just keeping up appearances, but really, take care of yourself. Have fun every day. Laugh, love, try new things, and don't be afraid of your future. Hawkmoth only wins when we let terror prevent us from loving life."

She could only nod as he pressed the snake bangle into her hand. She gulped. Alya came back for another long, hard hug. They had agreed that one of them should keep their Miraculous for communication and protection, and it seemed that Alya was already finding comfort in the orange foxtail pendant lying at the hollow of her throat. She fingered it softly as she looked deep into Ladybug's eyes and simply said, "We'll be coming home very soon."

"Very very soon."

One more hug, and Ladybug swallowed back the lump that refused to budge, concentrated on the picture of secluded beach Luka had given her, and announced "Voyage." He promised that would not be their final destination, but it gave Ladybug a bit of hope to imagine her friends were going somewhere beautiful and warm. Alya's parents stepped through with the twins, followed by Nino and Nora, Alya, and at last, Luka looked back at her. The light closed around the group, waving and smiling to the last.

* * *

"Ch-Chat, thanks for c-coming," Ladybug hiccuped.

"Of course," he crooned, curling up beside her on their favorite rooftop. He wrapped his arms around her tiny frame and rubbed heat into her shoulders. "May I?" he paused.

She nodded. Instantly, Chat Noir's purr started vibrating through her body. It was like being wrapped in an electric blanket.

"Today's been the worst, huh." She could only nod. "It seems like the other heroes' leaked information was only skin-deep, though."

"Yeah, maybe, but that only means he's going to strike again, and oh, Chat, I can't lose another teammate. Three in one go is my limit!" Ladybug broke down in tears.

Chat held her tenderly. "Deep breaths, Bugaboo. That's right. Let it all out."

"I can't do this anymore, Chat. I'm so tired. I'm so lost. I'm ready to hand over my Miraculous and let him do whatever he wants with it. Screw the price. Heaven knows I've paid it, in full, twice over. I'm sick of it. If he wants to re-write reality, let him. This reality sucks anyway. He can be in charge of it all, I don't care. He can have the weight of the world on his shoulders and he can see how it feels when it all crashes down on him. I don't want it anymore, I never asked for it in the first place."

Chat's purr hummed through her heart. He didn't say anything, just kept holding her and purring.

"I'm serious. I'll give him my Miraculous. Chat, I'm going to do it."

He squeezed her softly.

"You don't think I will. I totally will. I'm done, you hear me? Done!"

Silence. Purring.

She screamed. She threw herself away from him and punched his shoulder as hard as she could. He barely twitched. "Chat, how _dare_ you? How _dare you just sit there!_"

He didn't move.

"I _hate _you!"

He smiled.

She collapsed in violent sobs. He let her cry it out before slowly, lovingly, tenderly scooping her up and rocking her back and forth.

"Your life is the most unfair one…probably in the history of humanity; and trust me, I know something of unfair. I don't know why you were chosen to wear those earrings, but I do know this: you are the strongest person I've ever met. Not because you're smart or beautiful or strong or funny—although those things are true—but because you keep coming back every day, even though you have every excuse and right to quit. If you want me to take your earrings to someone else, I will gladly do so because it's high time you got the break you deserve." He backed off and looked into her eyes. She blinked slowly and shook her head. "I will do everything I can to make it easier on you, then." She hugged him. He traced a claw around the edge of her mask and down her jawline. "We're going to find Hawkmoth, I'm sure of it. We're going to find him and we're going to beat him." He held her for a long time, rocking her softly and stroking her hair, until her sobs quieted, and her body softened against his.

"Chat?"

"What?"

"I don't hate you."

"I know."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Adrien's feet thudded on each step of the staircase. For the last year and a half, school had been his favorite place. Not today. Today, he just wanted to hide.

He pushed the door to the classroom open and forced himself to look up. Of course, the seat next to his was empty. Nino had sent him a string of frantic texts Saturday night, but seeing the seat vacant made his friend's absence real. Adrien's eyes slid up to the next row of seats, which were also empty. Wait—Alya was gone, yes, but where was Marinette? Panicking, Adrien searched the classroom and felt a jolt of relief when he saw the familiar black pigtails in the back of the room. Her arms were wrapped around a trembling body. Marinette released her friend, and Juleka's face retracted from Marinette's shoulder. That's right—Luka had left as well. Adrien swallowed and made his way to the back of the classroom.

"Hey, Juleka," he tried, patting her shoulder. She sobbed. He nearly said something about Luka, but then remembered that he was currently sans-mask. _Adrien _wouldn't know anything about the abrupt exodus of her brother. "Everything ok?"

Marinette shook her head.

"He… he just left! There was a short note saying he loved us, but that was all! I… I don't know what I did wrong!" Marinette mouthed 'Luka' to Adrien who feigned surprise.

"You didn't do anything wrong, I'm sure," Adrien consoled. "I… I saw on the news some of the akuma attack. It looks like your brother is a true hero. I'm sure whatever he left to do was for the safety of himself and everyone around him."

She sniffled and nodded, but she still shook. "Still, I'm so worried about him."

"I know," Marinette crooned. How did she get her voice to hold so much love? "I am too. It's going to be alright, though. Luka's one of the bravest, strongest men I know."

Juleka nodded. "You're right. He is. Oh," she hiccuped, stifling a laugh, "Claire's going to be _so _mad. He left her behind." Marinette suddenly burst out laughing.

Adrien raised an eyebrow. "Claire… his girlfriend?"

Marinette shook her head, "No, his _guitar._"

"Oh…" Adrien tried to laugh along, not getting why it was funny, but eager to support Juleka and fit in with the conversation. The two girls just rolled their eyes and giggled together. Adrien noticed Marinette's shoulders relax as Juleka started laughing. The danger had passed.

"Hey, Jules, I've got a proposal for you, but you can say no if you're not comfortable with it, ok?" Marinette started, walking Juleka slowly to her seat.

"Uh, sure, what is it?" Juleka responded, wiping her tears away.

"Adrien's Father is having another fashion contest, and I'm looking for a female model to demo the counterpart to the male model I've already procured." Marinette gave a questioning look to Adrien, who nodded.

"Yeah, you should see her designs; they're fantastic," he added helpfully.

"Oh, uh… maybe, yeah. You're the male model, Adrien?"

He nodded proudly. "It would be an honor to work with you again."

"What exactly would this job entail?"

"Well," Marinette started, "the theme of the competition is shoes. I have the male pair already made and am in the process of finishing the female counterpart. I'd like to have some professional photographs done."

"And when they win," Adrien winked at Marinette, "there's a runway show, but that would be totally up to you if you want to participate."

Juleka ruminated over it. "Y-yeah, I think that would be good," she stammered.

Marinette's face filled with light. "Really? That'd be so great!"

Juleka squared her shoulders and took a deep breath. "Luka told me to keep trying, even when I was afraid. I want to do it. For him."

Marinette hugged her friend. "Yeah. For him."

* * *

Adrien smiled and waved for the cameras, then turned and gestured toward Marinette. She looked like she was trying to shrink into the ground—and may have been successful if he hadn't insisted that everyone look at her. But this was her day, and he wasn't going to steal her spotlight.

It was not shocking in the slightest that Marinette's shoes blew away the competition. The only thing that had surprised Adrien was that his father had come to the runway show in person after making a public statement that he was going to support his son. Yet, when Adrien had rounded the corner and took the runway in his bright green shoes, it was Marinette's shining face that caught his eye. Not wanting to let his father's white suit outshine the amazing shoes, he'd glided down the runway, paused at the end to pose, then hunched his shoulders and did the moonwalk for several meters before spinning and landing on his toes just like Michael Jackson. The crowd went wild. Adrien winked at beet-red Marinette before marching dutifully back to the dressing room. Juleka's turn on the runway in her red and black spotted sport shoes had been equally successful. She moved with a grace and elegance that was born, not learned. Adrien had connected Juleka with his favorite agent at the end of the show, who whisked her away to discuss further training and to field offers. However, Marinette's Chat Noir and Ladybug-inspired shoes were the talk of the town. Adrien's father mentioned something about including them in the summer athletics line and the media had gone wild. The final part of the prize package for the designer—and the thing Adrien was most excited about—was still ahead—or rather, _above _them.

"Come on, Marinette, I'll be right there with you the whole time."

She gnawed on her lip so continuously that Adrien feared it might start to bleed. He reached out to her. She glared at his ring-clad hand, but slowly her eyes traced up his arm, across his shoulder, and to his face. Her mouth formed that surprised little "o" and her eyes opened wider, just like the day he'd offered her his umbrella—the day he had first counted her among his friends.

_Oh, that day, _Adrien remembered with a start, and Nino's voice floated into his mind from a distance: _"I think she first fell for you when you offered you her umbrella. At least, that's what Alya said. To be honest, I noticed it too. How could I not? I've known Marinette since we were little. She was a fiery kid. But she's always been different around you. Not the first day you arrived, no, but the umbrella… the umbrella did her in, man." _

Adrien's indignation at this revelation had been instant: _"You mean she was in love with me from practically the day we met? And you never said a word?"_

_"__Well, I was sworn to secrecy. Trust me, if you'd been in my position, you wouldn't have said anything either." _

The memory of the moment with Nino ached inside him, but he tried to focus on the here and now. Now he was holding out his hand, much like he had that day with the umbrella. Marinette was looking at him, much like she had then. Was she remembering the same moment he was? Was she feeling her stomach bunch up in knots, just like he was? Were other memories—memories of "lucky charm" bracelets, video games, sneaking into movie theaters with a towel on her head, filming Nino's ridiculous "project", jumping into a swimming pool filled with white balls—flashing through her mind right now as well? Surely those memories could not be the same as his. His were pointed with whisking egg whites for macarons, holding her to him as he used Chat Noir's baton to vault them over buildings, playing the piano with her, and the warmth of her hand in his as she reassured him that everything was going to be ok. Those, after all, were Chat Noir's memories. He suddenly felt a bit of a thief—stealing moments from her that only he knew were his…

It was only a second that Adrien stood there, hand outstretched toward her, before she smiled and her tiny, soft fingers slipped into his. Adrien shook his head to clear the onslaught of memories and refocused yet again. Marinette squared her shoulders and waved for the cameras before she and Adrien climbed into the basket of the hot air balloon that would be their mode of transportation for the afternoon.

The operator gave them some instructions and Marinette gripped the side of the basket as the balloon took off. Adrien couldn't help but watch her. He'd seen Paris from above before. Marinette, though, Marinette was something new.

She enthusiastically pointed out her favorite landmarks as the balloon followed the current. The photographer snapped some pictures, but mostly let them talk. Adrien couldn't recall everything he said. Once they were at their cruising altitude, the four people in the basket relaxed and enjoyed the sensation of being one with the wind. Marinette leaned a little closer to Adrien and his heartrate accelerated. "It's so beautiful from up here, isn't it," she said softly.

"Yeah, you are," he responded.

She blushed and turned wide blue eyes on him. "What did you say?"

He thought about backpedaling but didn't want to. He meant exactly what he said. He simply smirked instead and turned to watch the city below him.

* * *

The operator lied. They'd promised him a four-hour ride in the hot air balloon, and that couldn't have been more than twenty minutes.

Marinette was all charm and grace. She shook hands with the photographer and the balloon operator after they landed. Adrien numbly followed suit. Had she _always _been that poised? He chuckled to himself as he remembered watching her stumble over air or standing in a pie. How far she had come! He hopped out of the basket and held out his arm to steady her as she climbed out. She had one leg over the edge of the basket when she looked up at him and he flashed his widest Chat Noir smile at her. It was as if her bones melted. Adrien barely caught her before she faceplanted into the ground. _There she is._ _There's my Marinette._

"Whoa there, steady," he hummed. She giggled.

"Yeah yeah, I know. I'm such a klutz."

He winked, and whispered, "But an adorable one." She had no time to recover from that line when he cleared his throat, loudly thanked the operator and photographers for their time, and escorted Marinette over to the limousine waiting for them. As soon as the car door shut, Marinette squirmed in her seat. Finally, they were alone.

"That was super fun, wasn't it?" he grinned.

She nodded enthusiastically, then looked out the window. Something was off.

"I really enjoyed myself, didn't you?" Adrien tried again, smile starting to wane.

"Oh yes," she said, a little too intensely. "Um, would you mind taking me home?" she requested of the driver, who shrugged and started the engine, shutting the partition to the back as he now had his orders.

Adrien slumped back a bit. He'd really thought the electricity he'd felt all afternoon was mutual. _One more shot. _"What was your favorite part? I loved getting away from the city and seeing all the beautiful fall colors…"

She smiled a little too widely and nodded.

He rubbed the back of his neck in defeat. "Look, Marinette, I'm sorry. I'm sorry you got dragged into all that media fiasco and publicity and stuff. I hate it when my dad makes me do those things, and I'm sorry you had to put up with me all day and—"  
"Wait, what? Adrien?"

He cleared his throat and looked at her properly. "I'm sorry I made you uncomfortable."  
"Uncomfortable? No way, I loved it!"

"Then why won't you talk to me?"

She was wriggling in her seat. Her eyebrows pinched together. "It's just…"

"Marinette, what?"

"I really need to pee!"

Adrien almost cracked a rib; he was laughing so hard. Still, he knocked on the partition, the driver lowered it, and he ordered, "Please pick up the pace."

* * *

Marinette had been, was, and forever would be better than Adrien at video games. However, he loved playing with her, and felt like it was the least he could offer. Watching her race in the house to the bathroom hardly seemed like a fair way to end their very public date. Besides, he had one more surprise up his sleeve that he was anxious to pull. He set up the game, thanked Sabine for the orange juice she'd prepared, and settled on the couch to accept his beating. Marinette grinned and curled up next to him.

"I brought a new game," he grinned.

"Really? What is it?"

Adrien nodded toward the television, and when Marinette saw the start menu flashing "Tech Racer 2.0," she squealed. "How did you…holy cow… what?" He grinned. That was _just _the response he was hoping for. "But it hasn't even been released yet!"

He ran his fingers through his hair, yawned noisily, then smirked, "Finally, a game that Marinette _hasn't_ beaten seven times over. We'll be on even ground."

She playfully punched his shoulder. He giggled and rubbed the pretend-wound, then used the built in-excuse to stretch his arm and drape it around Marinette's shoulders. She tensed slightly, then relaxed into his side. She picked up her controller and started the game. Adrien pulled her closer so that he could hold his controller and not have to pull his arm back from her. Her hair tickled his cheek and his cheeks warmed. Had she always smelled so good?

Adrien had been sure he could take at least a few of the first rounds they played, but he was wrong. Marinette had never played the game before and she _still _whooped him. On the third race, his competitive nature kicked into overdrive. He sat up, pulled his arm away from her waist, and hammered the controller. She gave him a wicked side-glance, then pulled her knees up to her chin and barely twitched as her vehicle glided around the obstacles on the screen. Adrien swerved and dodged, muscles tensing involuntarily. He groaned and exclaimed passionately throughout the race. Marinette was silent. Three intense laps later, Marinette's motorcyclist popped a wheelie as it crossed the finish line, while Adrien's hot rod flipped off the road and tumbled down the side of a pixelated mountain.

"How do you _do _that?" he moaned, after the spectacular defeat.

"Do what?" she giggled innocently, putting down her controller to take a sip of orange juice.

"I had to call in favors in three countries and do two extra photo shoots for the _Gabriel Tokyo _magazine just to get my hands on a game that I could guarantee you hadn't played before. I've been practicing for days. You just… _destroyed _me." His lower lip poked out in a pout, but his eyes were still twinkling.

She fluttered her eyelashes, "Oh, I'm sorry Monsieur Agreste, I wasn't aware that your ego was so fragile. I'll go easy on you this time, I promise."

His nose wrinkled. "No you don't. If I'd wanted you to pander to me, I would've played with Chloe. You go on, keep beating me fair and square. It drives me to be better, and heaven knows I don't need to be handed any more mercy wins."

She genuinely blushed and the controller slipped from her fingers. "Uh, wow. That was… really nice of you to say."

Now Adrien was blushing. He hadn't meant it as a compliment; it was just the truth. He tried to shrug off the heat that was burning his ears. "I just mean, I like that you don't hold back. I'm awestruck at your skill, of course—but you should never feel like you have to be something less than the amazing person you are."

Adrien could see the goosebumps that raced up her arms and lifted the hair on the back of her neck. Her cheeks were red, her eyes were wide, and her lips trembled. "Adrien, thank you," she whispered. She didn't drop eye contact.

Adrien had kissed Marinette's silky lips before, why was his heart hammering out of his chest like this? _No, _he reminded himself firmly, _Chat Noir has kissed Marinette. _He moved very deliberately, giving her ample time to pull back, and glided his thumb across her jaw. She shivered more violently but maintained eye contact. Her gaze was so determined, so blue, and yet so caring. His left hand took her tiny fingers in his. He leaned toward her, feeling her rapid pulse under his knuckles and her breath danced across his chin. Her eyes fluttered shut and he took that as permission. He closed the distance between them—lips brushing softly together in a spine-tingling moment. He kissed her again, a little stronger now, and she slipped a hand to his chest. He inhaled and was overwhelmed by everything _Marinette_—her scent, the taste of her lips, the heat from her fingers—

His phone buzzed. She jerked backward. The air between them was like ice. He caught her hand and held it. "Sorry," she apologized, "just… your phone…"

He frowned, but knowing he was still technically on the company's schedule, pulled out his phone and checked his messages. Marinette patiently fiddled with a pigtail while he read through the string of texts from Nathalie. His eyes widened and his jaw went slack.

"Adrien? Is everything alright?"

"Y-yeah. It's… It's my Father. Nathalie says he wants to have dinner tonight and he's planning some other things tomorrow… I'm supposed to get home right away."

Marinette smiled with him. "Wow, that's exciting!"

"Sorry to cut our date short, Marinette, but I've got to go—"

She caressed his cheek. "Of course, go!"

He squeezed her hand. "I'll call you tonight?"

She nodded. "Have a great time."

Adrien ran all the way home, not even bothering to wait for his bodyguard to bring the car to Marinette's front step.


	8. Chapter 8

"You're sure you have time?"

Gabriel's eyebrows knit, but he nodded. "Of course I have time to play a duet with you, Adrien. I know I haven't always been here the way I should have been, but I… you're very important to me."

Adrien couldn't hold back the smile that split his face. He settled on to the piano bench and laid out the sheet music. His father sat next to him and counted off the beat, and the music poured out of Adrien's Steinway.

"You're very accomplished, son."

"Thanks, dad."

"Your mother was a very talented musician as well."

"Tell me about her?" Gabriel hesitated, the music halting abruptly. "Sorry, if it's too painful… I just… the memories aren't as clear as they once were."

"No, no, it's alright. Your mother is the most beautiful, talented woman I ever met. Trust me, I meet a lot of women. I miss her every day. You remind me so much of her."

Adrien smiled at that warm thought. "I know she wouldn't want you to be sad."

Gabriel stiffened. "Perhaps not. But that does not prevent me from being sad."

"Would you… tell me what happened?"

"That's not your concern!" Gabriel snapped, slamming the keyboard lid shut. Adrien yelped in shock and flew backward. "I mean, I'm… It's hard to discuss."

Adrien was panting from his Father's sudden outburst, but tentatively returned to the bench, opened the lid, and pointed to a starting place on the duet. They didn't speak as they finished the piece. Once silence had filled the room once more, Gabriel quietly spoke, "She was a headstrong woman. Lovely as the day is long, but very stubborn. She insisted I take her on a trip… something about always wanting to visit China, so I consented. I never could hold back anything from her. But something about it worried me tremendously. Besides, she'd been… ill… for some time, and I wasn't sure her health would hold up. We arrived. She insisted on a dangerous expedition into the mountains. I pleaded with her to slow down, but she became very angry and left without me. Her tour guide, an old woman called Mei Jian, came back from the trip alone. We searched for days but found nothing. Mei Jian turned on me, claiming that Emilie had deserted us, but I knew that couldn't be true. I had distrusted the old woman from the start. She was interested in Emilie—Emilie's fortune, most likely, or maybe it was Emilie's twin rings, which the woman thought might hold magical powers… preposterous, of course—and when Emilie didn't come back from their hiking expedition, I feared the worst. But I had no evidence against her, and my visa expired. I was forced to come home alone, never knowing what happened. I hired the finest investigators in China to search for her, but every time I get an update, it is a dead-end. I apologize, Adrien; I should have told you this a long time ago. I just… couldn't bring myself to place such a heavy burden on your young shoulders."

Adrien's head was spinning. "You think… this Mei Jian woman… _murdered _Mother?"

Gabriel was quiet. He placed a hand on Adrien's shoulder. "Your mother listed in her will that, when you come of age, you would inherit the Graham de Vanily twin rings, as well as the lion's share of her family fortune. I'm afraid that Mei Jian isn't the only threat to your future. Perhaps you can understand, now, why I have been so hesitant to allow you to attend public school or encourage fraternization with those who would use you for their own sordid purposes."

Adrien's spine tingled. "My friends would never do that!"

"Are you quite certain? Mei Jian and your Mother were very close. You are _so _like her, Adrien, so quick to trust and slow to fear. But I have always watched over you carefully. As long as you are with me, I will ensure that you are safe. I will never let something happen to you like what happened to Emilie. You're special, Adrien. You are important." Gabriel started picking out a few notes of the duet again. "This is lovely music."

Adrien's brain was spinning. "Father?"

"Yes, son?"

"You… don't think it's safe for me to go to public school?"

Gabriel scratched his chin thoughtfully. "You wanted it so badly; I could never hold something so dear to you back. And, you have your bodyguard, and Nathalie, and me."

"Y-yeah…" he swallowed hard.

"And you're well-trained in fencing and martial arts; you are strong and smart. Certainly, you won't go _looking _for trouble."

"R-right."

"Yet… I feel I must warn you—a few months ago, someone stole your Mother's twin ring."  
"_What? _Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want to worry you. However, it seems the threat against our family is stronger than ever." Adrien's stomach was lodged somewhere behind his tongue. "There, now, son, it is alright. I will keep you safe, as, I'm sure you would for me as well."

"We could ask Ladybug and Chat Noir for help. They seem to know all about magic and mysteries and things like that!"

Gabriel pondered, "That may be. But forgive me if I don't implicitly trust two teenagers who hide behind masks and don't even use their real names. I've learned from painful experience to be very wary of people. The media enjoys calling me a recluse, but it is better than being taken advantage of. Take your school friend, Miss Rossi, for example. I took a chance and trusted her to be our top model, and how did she thank us? By running away, stealing money and goods from the company, and in the end, being indirectly responsible for harm coming to _you. _If she hadn't run off, Nathalie could have kept a closer eye on you and prevented you from getting caught up in the Sentimonster attack on London. You, yourself, admitted how terrifying that was. That is why I am very cautious in whom I trust, and I recommend you do the same." At some point during their conversation, Adrien had started shaking, and he couldn't stop. Gabriel squeezed his son's shoulders, "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm afraid I've made you nervous. My son, you don't need to fear. As long as you're with me, you're going to be safe."

* * *

"You mean to tell me that I've been gone for two weeks and you're suddenly _dating _Adrien Agreste? Who are you and what have you done with my best friend?"

Marinette's nose wrinkled in delight. She was grateful Tikki and Trixx had worked out how to produce a two-way screen-like device for communicating even while not transformed, since phones were definitely off-limits. "We're not dating. I said we kissed two days ago. He hasn't called me since—I suspect he's been too busy and that's ok—but we're not officially dating."

"Still, I've been trying for months—_years!—_to get the two of you together! Now you're kissing and one measly phone call away from a public announcement. I should've moved away _months _ago!"

"Didn't I tell you I could handle it? See, I handled it!" Marinette proudly declared.

Alya giggled. "That you did. That sounds just like something that happened here the other day—"

"No, Alya, don't say anything," Marinette interrupted.

Alya halted mid-breath. Her face fell. "That's right. Sorry."

Marinette sighed, "I'm sorry, I just feel so out of control. In every aspect of my life. My best friend is in the newly-minted Ladybug witness protection program, my fashion career just got a huge bump, school is… well, school, behind the mask, we're scrambling to figure out what Hawkmoth is up to with very little success, and the boy I've been in love with for a year and a half just kissed me."

"Why is that out of control?"

"Well, because we had that crazy week with all those akuma attacks—the last one being so horrible that you had to, you know, leave, and then Hawkmoth went silent. Nothing for two weeks! It's like he found out what he needed to know and is now planning his next move. It's terrifying. I never thought I'd say this, but I really miss the ridiculous, predictable akumas."

Alya rolled her eyes, "No girl, I know all _that_, I meant why is Adrien kissing you out of control?"

Marinette bit her lip. "It's just that… ugh… I kind of have been thinking about…"

"Oh my gosh you're in love with Chat Noir!"

"I said nothing of the sort!" Marinette's blush gave her away.

"Marinette!"

"Alya, keep your pants on. I am _not _in love with Chat Noir."

"But you can't stop thinking about him."

"We've been partners for the last year and a half. He's one of the most important people in my life. We've grown so close now… He's always there for me when I need him. Like, the night you had to leave, he held me for hours and let me cry. He understands this double life. Sure, he's a total goofball, but he's serious when I need it and he's a great listener. I doubt anyone would be able to build that kind of relationship and _not _think about them."

"So why don't you ask him out?"

"Did you hear me? Adrien just kissed me!"

"Adrien just kissed Marinette." Her eyebrows lifted suggestively.

"You're sick. I don't care what twisted sense of decency you have; I am not going to date two boys."

"Fine, then, have it your way. So, who will the lucky winner be?"

Marinette swallowed and looked at her hands. "You know what Chat's secret was—the one he revealed to Hawkmoth?" Alya's face turned questioning. "That he was in love with two girls. I know one of those is Ladybug. The other…"

"Is you, Marinette."

"You don't know that for sure. I mean, sure, he kissed me last summer, we hang out and flirt like crazy, but it might be someone else. Someone who could make him happy. Someone he could be himself with."

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng don't make me climb through this screen and throttle you. What did you say he told you last summer… that if it weren't for Ladybug, he'd choose you?" Marinette nodded solemnly. "That doesn't sound like a boy who's in love with someone else."

"I wish it were someone else. I wish he had someone who could be his whole world."

"Sounds like your heart has made its choice, then."

Marinette tried to muster the energy to reply, but suddenly Tikki dropped the screen, shaking too violently to hold still. "Whoa, Tikki, are you ok?" Marinette cried. "Sorry, Alya, something's wrong with Tikki. I'll talk to you soon!" Alya nodded her understanding. The device evaporated as Marinette scooped up Tikki, who was still shaking.

"Ma-Marinette, help me to the Miracle Box."

"Of course, Tikki." Marinette opened the wardrobe where she hid the Miracle Box and extracted it. She let Tikki slide into the box.

A minute later, Kaalki and Xuppu phased through Marinette's window.

"Master," Kaalki cried, "we are being called!"

Marinette held up the Miracle Box for the two Kwami. Longg, and a moment later, Plagg came whizzing into Marinette's room and were instantly drawn to the Miracle Box. Marinette waited on bated breath and stared at the quiet box.

Her silver cell phone vibrated in her pocket.

**Kitty: **What's going on? Plagg just freaked out and flew off!

Marinette tapped out her response, then copied and sent it to the rest of the team in their secure group chat:

**Milady: **Something is happening in the Miracle Box. Your Kwami are safe. Please stay where you are for now; I will let you know as soon as I know more.

The other texts flurried in faster than Marinette could respond, especially because she barely removed her eyes from the silent Miracle Box.

It was only ten minutes, but it felt like hours. The kwami emerged, exchanging meaningful looks, and acknowledged Marinette before zipping through the window into the night.

"Tikki! What's going on?" Marinette demanded.

"We received a message from a fellow miracle box. The other kwami are going to explain this to their holders now. I've made sure Trixx is aware, also."

"What was the message?"

"Their box has been unlocked… Let me back up. This is kind of complicated." Marinette sat down as Tikki launched into her story. "You know that there was a Guardian's Temple in Tibet about two hundred years ago, and that they protected many of the Miracle Boxes as well as trained holders, right?"

Marinette nodded, "Yes, that's where Master Fu went."

Tikki continued, "Yes, the very one. Of course, you also know about Feast, and how the temple was destroyed. The other miracle boxes were swallowed by Feast, except for ours—the one Fu saved, and we've both been preparing for a trip to the temple ever since you defeated Feast and restored the temple."

"Yes, I know. I've been trying to learn Chinese just for that purpose."

Tikki patted Marinette's hand knowingly. "Well, the curators returned to the temple in the restoration and the Miracle Boxes came back, but the Kwami have not been able to leave the Miracle Boxes because of the magic they had used to protect themselves against Feast's wrath. You see, they had sealed themselves inside the box. It's one of the few defense mechanisms we Kwami have. If we're not with a holder or sealed in a Miracle Box, we can't focus our magic or protect ourselves. When danger comes, we can lock a box down so that none of the Miraculouses can be removed. Once the danger passes, the Guardian can unlock the box and release the kwami."

"But," Marinette interjected, "the temple was full of Guardians, wasn't it? When it was restored, they should have had the power to unlock the boxes."

Tikki shook her head, "That's the thing—they weren't Guardians. Master Fu was the guardian. They were trained to care for the Miracle Boxes and to wield Miraculous, but there was only one who held the keys of Guardianship, and that was Master Fu. Then, of course, he relinquished that power and passed it to—"

"Me." The overwhelming, achy weight of responsibility hit Marinette again as it hadn't for months. "But I haven't unlocked any Miracle Boxes. Oh Tikki, we should have gone to Tibet straight away. We should have helped them. I just didn't know! Oh, I'm such a disaster. How could I have overlooked—"

"_Marinette! _Stop! It's fine, the Kwami are safe, the Miraculous are safe, and you are _not _required to halt your life or leave Paris to open those boxes at this time. We were going to get there when it was safe, remember?"

Marinette massaged her head, trying to focus on the task at hand. "You're sure they're safe and… and… happy? Not… bored or scared?"

Tikki grinned. "Time is meaningless to Kwami. There's been centuries that I've been in the Miracle Box, but as long as we are with other Kwami, it feels like mere hours. I promise that they are well."

Marinette sighed in relief. "Wait, what happens if the kwami is locked in a Miracle Box but their Miraculous jewels are not with them?"

Tikki shrugged, "The jewel goes latent. It still has residual traces of the magic, but it patiently awaits the return of the Kwami. I believe that's what happened to your friend Alix's watch. The owners sometimes recall the stories of the magic, and sometimes those stories are forgotten. Depending on the strength of each individual Miraculous, the jewelry might still bestow some interesting effects. For example, if I were locked in this box, your earrings might give you abnormally strong creative talents and a drive to heal things. You'd make world history for achievements in art or medicine and probably attribute your success to personal genius, never knowing that you were assisted by a latent Miraculous."

Marinette fingered her earrings absentmindedly. "Are you saying that I like design and fashion because of these?"

Tikki smiled softly. "You were incredibly talented long before I came along, and Miraculous or none, you are a special girl, Marinette. You have always used your gifts to serve others, and I am excited to spend a lifetime together serving humanity on both sides of the mask. But that's not as important right now. Like I said, one of the other Miracle Boxes was unlocked."

"Hang on, I thought you said only a guardian could unlock a box, and I'm the guardian."

Tikki struggled, "I'm as confused as you are. I'm sorry Marinette."

Marinette stood and started pacing. "Do you have any idea who unlocked it?" Tikki shook her head. "Tikki, when you and the other Kwami were called, you were all drawn to the Miracle Box. What about… Nooroo?"

Tikki's eyes bulged. "I hadn't thought about him. Yes, he would have felt the call every bit as strongly as the rest of us."

"But he didn't come."

"Hawkmoth must have ordered him not to move."

"Does he have the same information as the rest of us?"

"He wouldn't have the details we discussed together in the Miracle Box, but he will know another Box has been unlocked."

"Tikki," Marinette concluded, nervously fiddling with her pigtails, "I think we need to speed up our trip to Tibet."

* * *

_**Author's note:** I hope life is getting easier and calmer for all of you! I know as we've adjusted to schooling from home and I've completed some of my work for my classes (I'm set to graduate in just a few weeks with my bachelors degree!), I've been able to calm down and get some of my creativity back. I'm working hard on finishing this story, although the end is increasingly complex and therefore I am trying to write 7-8 chapters out so I can guarantee better continuity. Thank you SO much to my betas, Airie, Scoobers, and my LBSC friends for reading and helping with everything from grammar to glaring plot holes. I hope to post more frequently as this story accelerates. Thank you so much for reading and I hope you are enjoying it thus far!_

_~Mommadon_


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Adrien pointedly yawned, "This has been a great day, I'm going to turn in early."

Nathalie looked him over. "Yes, make sure you get some rest. Your father has requested your presence at a conference first thing in the morning."

"Of course."

"Goodnight, Adrien." Adrien left his father's atelier and bolted up the stairs to his bedroom.

"Plagg!" he cried as he slammed and locked his door, "What in the _world _just happened?"

Plagg was sitting on Adrien's desk looking worse for wear. "Must. Have. Camembert."

Adrien grumbled and retrieved a piece of cheese from Plagg's mini-fridge and tossed it at the little black Kwami. "Now will you tell me what's going on?"

Plagg swallowed his cheese, then perked up. "Thanks, kid. Being called like that is almost as draining as using my powers. It's _so _hard being me."

"Plagg. You suddenly started shaking and zoomed out of my shirt in broad daylight. It's a good thing my father had that unexpected call come in from Tokyo—he could have seen you!"

Plagg shrugged and grabbed another slice of cheese, "It's not _my _fault I was called right then."

Adrien sunk to his knees. "At least tell me what it was about."

Plagg scratched his ear, "There's not much to tell, actually. It's Ladybug who's really got the decisions to make."

"Explain."

"Ok, so we found out there's another Miracle Box in Tibet that was just unlocked after a couple centuries and we don't know who opened it or what they want."

Adrien nodded. "Interesting." He pulled out his silver cell phone to reach out to her, but hesitated. Was she one of the ones his father had just warned him about? Sure, he trusted Ladybug, Ladybug was his partner and had never once betrayed him, but…

He decided not to risk it. Besides, he didn't need to ask her thoughts on every subject. He was more than capable of figuring this out himself.

"If something crazy is happening, nothing much we can do but wait for it to arrive, right? And be prepared for when it does happen?" Plagg looked at Adrien warily, but sighed and nodded. "The best preparation I know of is currently in a garment bag in my closet. All of it… except the shoes. Hey Plagg, I think it's time for us to go visit our friend Marinette."

Plagg rolled his eyes, "You're going to drop in on her again?"

"Hey, I'm a respectful gentlecat, I'll have you know. We'll use the front door."

"Whatever. Just make sure you get some more cheesepuffs."

"Plagg, Claws out!"

Adrien wouldn't admit to Plagg that he had ulterior motives for visiting Marinette. He'd been so busy with his father that he hadn't called her in the two days since their kiss. _Their kiss,_ he thought with a pang… it felt like a year had passed. Maybe he had been presumptuous. Maybe he had moved too quickly. Something his father had mentioned nagged at him, though, like a mosquito he couldn't swat away.

_"Marinette Dupain-Cheng? The girl who won the fashion contest? Who wants nothing more than to be a famous designer?"_

_Marinette wasn't like that_, Adrien growled at himself. She was sweet and kind and would never… would never… His father's steely eyes glinted at him through the memory, making him feel small even now.

Chat Noir found himself standing in front of the Dupain-Cheng Bakery with no memory of the trip there. He steadied himself briefly, then rang the bell to the residence. A moment later, Tom Dupain's booming laugh welcomed Chat inside.

"Chat! It's been a few weeks, how are you, son?"

He smiled. How he loved this place, his second home. Well, first really, but since it wasn't where he actually resided, he felt awkward admitting that to anyone but himself. If anywhere would contain answers, this was it. Chat followed him to the back of the bakery, where Tom issued silent instructions to start prepping bread for the next day's orders.

"Fine, Mr. Dupain, just fine. I… Well, things have been going great in my life. Can't go into specifics, of course, but I've been able to spend the last couple of days with my father and he's… it's been great."

"I'm glad life is going well for you, Chat Noir. You deserve it."

Chat grinned. "And they say that black cats are unlucky."

"What about school?" Tom asked.

"School's fine… though I've been wondering if maybe I could, I dunno, get more out of it if I switched to private tutors."

Tom raised an eyebrow, "Why would you do that? Don't you like your school, your friends?"

"Oh," Chat tried to keep his voice level, "of course I do. It's just that my personal life is kind of complicated, you know? That, plus being _this_ and I wonder if it might be safer for me to study alone."

Tom didn't respond right away. "Is that really what you want?"

"I dunno, yeah, I guess?"

"I see. Well, if that's what you want…"

Chat's shoulders slumped. It _wasn't _what he wanted, but he couldn't very well admit that. The two men shaped loaves of bread in silence for a bit.

"I must ask though… how are things going with… you know… _girls?_"

Chat bit his lip and blushed. Tom's face cracked with glee.

"_Really? _That good, huh?"

Chat choked a bit and pulled at his collar. "It's awfully hot in here, Mr. Dupain."

"How many times do I have to tell you, call me Tom. And I'm thrilled for you. Tell me everything."

"She's just… incredible. Sweet, kind, funny, strong, brave, _beautiful_…"

Tom nodded. "And she's finally returning your feelings?"

Chat halted and looked quizzingly at Tom. "Well, more like _I _started returning her feelings and she's opened up to me more. But I'm afraid I can't take the next steps with her because… well, her life's ambitions are very closely related to the industry I work in."

Tom's eyebrows raised, "Wait, we _are _talking about Ladybug, aren't we?"

The blush that had been heating Chat's cheeks drained to a sickening grey color in a millisecond.

"Oh shoot, we're not."

Chat Noir stumbled and Tom guided him to the bar stool beside the register.

"Hey, Chat, I'm sorry. I got ahead of myself."

"No, it's not your fault. To be honest, I'd like your opinion on the matter." Tom brushed his flour-coated hands on his apron and pulled a pair of croissants from the glass case for the two of them. "It's so complicated, being a superhero. It was actually Ladybug, at the end of the school year last year, who told me that no one can be two people, and I really thought I'd found a happy balance… but in the last couple of months, I've started feeling… _strongly… _about another girl. I've been getting to know her, you know, without my mask, and she's just incredible. I'm certain… yes, certain that she wouldn't take advantage of me or my career, but it doesn't stop the worry."

Tom took a deep breath and held it. "You're right, that's pretty complicated."

"And meanwhile, Ladybug has suddenly been returning my jokes and flirting with me. At least, I think she is…"

Tom's hand thudded on Chat's shoulder. "Son, I only get occasional snippets of the nightly news when the bakery is slow, and even _I _know that Ladybug is flirting with you."

Chat's eyes popped. "See? Like, if Ladybug was still a definite no, I wouldn't hesitate at all to ask Ma-the other girl to be my girlfriend."

Tom raised an eyebrow and asked, "It's really that strong?" Chat nodded. "But she's not a definite no anymore, is she." Chat shook his head. "So what are you going to do?"

Chat shrugged. "What do you suggest?"

Tom fingered his mustache for a while. "Let me tell you a story, son. I was pretty young when I met Sabine. I was an awkward, clumsy nerd who spent his free time reading comics and baking. She was an exchange student at my school and _so _out of my league. Sabine was good at everything she tried. She was an award-winning martial artist, brilliant, beautiful, and always surrounded by handsomer boys than me. I fell for her so hard and so fast, but she had no idea I existed."

"What did you do?"

"Well, obviously, you know how the story ends. But it took a long time to get there. The first thing I did was tried to date other girls. I took out all her friends, had a couple of serious relationships, but I could never get past Sabine Cheng. I tried to ask her out and I just turned into a complete, bumbling mess. That's a Dupain family specialty," Tom added with a proud wink. "I thought I would never find a girl that I could be happy with unless it was Sabine, yet I felt like I couldn't be with Sabine. It was hard. But one day in our final year of lycée, we were assigned to a big project together, and we started spending time just to work together. I discovered that my crush was only surface-deep. I learned a lot about her. And I actually discovered that the wild attraction waned and I didn't love her the way I thought I had for years."

"Wait, _what? _But you're married!"

Tom smiled knowingly. "Once she was truly my friend and I quit pining after this goddess I'd envisioned her to be, true love began to grow—even though I didn't recognize it at the time. I came to understand her personality, her hopes and dreams, and we started to have some wonderful experiences with each other. I backed off, we developed an amazing relationship, we both dated around for a long time, and then, after I finished culinary school and she returned from her European Karate Championship, we started dating. I came to realize that this woman who was my best friend was like air to me. I needed her, and she needed me. Our love was greater than just beauty. It was based on shared experience, time, and inside jokes. We only dated a couple of weeks before I asked her to marry me—because we had built true love.

"So, Chat, my question is who do you need in your life? Not want, not yearn for, but who do you _need _the most?"

It wasn't even a question. Marinette was home. She was the dawn every morning and starlight by night. Suddenly, Chat realized he was speaking to this amazing girl's father and felt terribly awkward. Thank goodness, Tom didn't press him.

"You don't have to decide right away. You are teenagers, of course. My only advice is to work to grow a relationship based on trust, respect, shared experience, and true love. I'm not saying to be super serious right now—just… take your time and… don't be stupid and… you know. Stuff."

Chat and Tom laughed together. "Stuff. Great advice."

The door at the top of the stairs clanged and footsteps descended, "Papa, I know this is super sudden, but I got a really great opportunity and I need to go out of to—oh, hi, uh, hi there, Chat Noir," Marinette waved awkwardly.

"Marinette," Chat smiled at her. "I actually wanted to talk to you, do you have a minute?"

"Sure, I guess," she fumbled.

Tom clapped Chat on the back and stood. "Why don't you two head upstairs? I need to clean up the bakery. Mari, dear, I'm sure whatever you need will be fine."

"Thanks Papa," she smiled. Chat Noir followed her all the way up to her bedroom.

"So, Marinette, I heard about how well my shoes did at the fashion contest. I knew those little kitties would win. I mean, they're as paw-some as I am, how could they not?" She smirked, then started pacing around her room. "Purrincess? Everything alright?"

"Oh, yeah, of course. I'm guessing you want your shoes back, is that right?"

He rubbed the back of his neck absentmindedly. "Yeah, I kinda do."

"Of course, no problem." She grabbed the box from her desk and handed it to him. "It was lucky that you and Adrien have similar foot size. I don't think you'll notice any additional wear."

"Heh, lucky." She kept pacing. "Marinette, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, I'm—"

"Marinette. I'm not stupid." He patted the chaise and she flopped beside him.

"I just have a lot on my mind."

"Is it Adrien?" he asked quietly.

"How did you know?"

"You went on a pretty public date, remember?" She blushed. "So, he likes you, that's good, right?" Chat poked her shoulder gently and smirked.

"Yeah, sure, it's great," Marinette tried unconvincingly.

His eyes darkened, "Wait, it's _not _good?"

"I didn't say that."

"But you meant it."

She flopped into the pillow. "I promise it's not like that. I love being with Adrien, I do. I'm just… worried."

He patted her back softly, "Worried about what?"

She gulped for air, started speaking a couple of times, then covered her eyes with her hands and spoke, "It doesn't really matter."

"Marinette, you can tell me. I'm a good listener. Four ears, remember?"

She smiled softly at him before shrugging and shaking her head. "My life is more complicated than even I care to admit."

He waited for her to add more, but she didn't. She simply hunched her shoulder and fiddled with her pigtails. The motion was achingly familiar—she used to do that all the time last year when he was sans-mask. He had always thought it was just Marinette, but she didn't clam up like that around her other friends. Last summer, when she'd opened up to him as Chat about her feelings for Adrien, he'd finally realized it was her nervous habit and _not _a good sign.

Chat didn't like the way this conversation was going. Marinette was too awesome a person to be second guessing herself like this. "You know what I think is amazing?" he diverted. She raised a speculative eyebrow. "You. Your shoes, your designs, your friendship." She smiled. _That's better. _"Really, you're so talented and funny and cute." Her eyelids fluttered as her cheeks dusted pink. _Excellent. _"And incredibly thoughtful. In fact, I was wondering if we could make some more passionfruit macarons sometime, you know, if you're available-"

"Really?" she asked, sitting up and sliding closer to him. _Yes. This is right. _"I'd be happy to share my recipe, if you'd like."

Adrien yearned for her. He couldn't—no, he _wouldn't _believe the things his father had suggested. Marinette was unlike anyone he—or his father, for that matter—had ever known. This was the girl who was his first friend. This was the girl who laughed with him. This was the girl who found out his favorite things, just to make him happy. This was the girl who once brought him into her room and let him spend the night—no questions asked, and when the satin mask she'd made for him slipped off, _didn't look. _If Marinette wasn't trustworthy, he didn't know who could be. "It's not the recipe I want."

"Is that… so…" she whispered. His heart raced as she smiled at him. He remembered the taste of her silken kiss and hungered for more. He leaned in and cupped her jaw in his hand. Her breath rippled across his cheek, fast and intense. His lips parted and he drew her close—

"Chat—"

Chat Noir. Chat Noir! _Holy crap I'm Chat Noir! _Adrien cursed at himself and flew backward, falling on the floor.

"Chat, are you ok?"

"Yeah, y-yeah, sorry," he stammered, getting to his feet, "I just… I'm so sorry… I'm so sorry Marinette, I didn't mean to… I mean, I meant to, I just… I shouldn't have…"

"Chat, hang on—"

"I wasn't thinking straight, I'm sorry, I should go—"

"Please, wait—" Something loud crashed outside, followed by screams of panic. Chat Noir's ear twitched. "Oh no. Stupid Hawkmoth, he has the best timing…" Marinette grumbled.

"I've, you know, gotta go, because, you know, akuma and—yeah—"

Chat took the steps to Marinette's skylight three at a time and disappeared into the cool autumn night. He'd gone to Marinette's house to find clarity and ended up making things worse. _I am such an idiot!_

The akuma was stomping down the street towards Notre Dame. He tore after it, trying to run the emotion away.

"Chat Noir!"

Of _course_ the one time he really needed to run by himself for a while was the time Ladybug would arrive almost simultaneously.

"Hey, LB, fancy meeting you here!"

* * *

Marinette watched Chat fly through her skylight door. "Chat, you forgot your shoes!" she called, but he was well out of hearing range. The windows rattled again as the akuma thumped down the street. Marinette sighed and called on her transformation. She really wanted to sit this one out; she was simply not in a good headspace for taking on an akuma right now. Part of her could only think about Chat Noir, his purr and his laugh, his goofy smirk and bright green eyes, his lips centimeters from hers… but the Miracle Box in Tibet! Tikki, the other Kwami! The desperate need to get to Tibet and find whoever had unlocked the other Miracle Box weighed on her. She would have headed off immediately if it weren't for her infernal incompetence in speaking Chinese.

Ladybug slapped her cheeks to clear her mind—not that it did much good—and zipped her way up the street.

"Chat Noir!"

He turned, his smile forced, "Hey LB, fancy meeting you here!"

"Is… Plagg ok? You know, after what happened this afternoon and all?"

"Yeah, you know Plagg, a little cheese and he's his normal, pleasant self."

She laughed. "We need to talk, huh."

He nodded forlornly. "Akuma first."

Ladybug flew to the rooftops where she could observe the akuma easier. She flattened herself behind a chimney and cautiously peered down. A petite woman in a red qipao was using a pair of chopsticks to volley torrents of scorching noodles at frightened pedestrians. "Ladybug, Chat Noir," she taunted, aiming her chopsticks and wrapping a whole car in the steaming noodles. "Tikki, Plagg!"

It was like being doused in ice water. Ladybug froze as the akuma called for her beloved Kwami. Chat Noir landed next to her.

"Did she just call for our _Kwami?" _Chat groaned. Ladybug nodded. "That can't be good."

"After the call, Tikki warned me that Nooroo would have the same information that the rest of the Kwami got."

"So, Hawkmoth is aware that another Miracle Box has been unlocked, right?"

She nodded again, then continued, "But since Nooroo wasn't allowed to join the rest of the Kwami in our Miracle Box, he wasn't there for the meeting of the Kwami. Seems like Hawkmoth wants to interrogate Plagg and Tikki about it now."

Chat shuddered. "How about we take this thing down fast, then. And don't get hit."

"Excellent plan, Mon Chaton," she teased, taking him by surprise.

"How about I attack, you hang back and observe a bit, and then—hang on, Ladybug, wait!" She'd already launched herself into the fray and caught the attention of the akuma. Ladybug had no intention of watching Chat Noir get pummeled today. She spun her yo-yo to deflect the jet of hot noodles and broth the akuma sent at her, did a series of cartwheels to find a better foothold, and then swung in to knock the akuma to its back.

"Take _that, _ol' Noodlehead!"

_"Noodlehead?" _Chat scoffed from the other side of the street, where he was racing forward to attack.

"What, got anything better?" she laughed back. The akuma, now facing Ladybug and Chat Noir on opposite sides, had to split her chopsticks and could only send a paltry dribble of noodles at each hero.

"Yeah, keep to opposite sides—seems she's got a limited supply of noodles!" he called, twisting out of the way and using his stick to pry open the door of the car that was still encased in the rope-like noodles.

Ladybug took advantage of the distraction by advancing and landing a blow across the akuma's jaw. She stumbled back, then turned the chopsticks full-force on Ladybug. The akuma growled in frustration and started cursing in fluent Chinese.

"Hey, don't talk about my beautiful Lady like that!" Chat growled just as Ladybug's round-house kick knocked one of the chopsticks flying, spewing noodles at random across the street. Noodles and broth hit Ladybug's back, and instantly coiled around her midsection. She screamed in pain. Chat hurled himself at her, "Cataclysm!" His claws ripped through the noodles that had trapped her.

"Thanks, Kitty," she panted, before, "Let's end this thing _now._ Lucky Charm!" A bottle of ketchup landed in her hands, and she barely had to think before popping the top and squirting it at the stream of noodles now flying after Chat. Chat opened his mouth and let the disgusting concoction slide down his throat with a satisfied smack.

"Mm, delicious!"

The akuma screamed in horror and cursed again in Chinese. Ladybug picked out a few words… something about 'stupid kids' and 'heritage' and 'contaminated.' The akuma was so worked up over the fact that Chat appeared to enjoy her noodles with ketchup, that she dove after him. Ladybug hooked her yo-yo around the chopsticks, and they zipped back to her with ease. Ladybug snapped them over her knee and the purple butterfly wriggled free.

A minute and one Miraculous Ladybug later, Chat Noir was patting the confused Chinese noodle vendor's hand and babbling away in Chinese. Ladybug's jaw hit the floor.

He waved good-bye to the woman, who bowed to Ladybug before heading in the direction of her shop.

"Chat. Noir. What in the world was _that?_"

"Apparently the poor lady was frustrated living in a city where so few speak her language or respect her culture. Strange, she hadn't really been that angry. I'm concerned that Hawkmoth chose her for his akuma; seems like a desperate choice to me. He must have really wanted that information and maybe didn't think through it carefully. Not that I'm complaining. I always appreciate easier akumas, and there appears to be a correlation between the strength and validity of their anger and the difficulty we have."

Ladybug shook her head, "No—I mean, not no, you're right about the akuma, but—since when did you speak Chinese?"

Chat's eyebrows flew to his hairline. "Uh, since… ever? So?"

Her smile was brilliant. "Go feed Plagg, then meet me on our rooftop. We've got a lot to discuss."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"Slow down, Adrien, you'll choke."

Adrien nodded and swallowed his breakfast. "Yes, Father. Um, I had a question—"

"Now, Mrs. Fitzpatrick is a very important client, so I expect you to pay her every respect. These connections are critical as we expand…"

Adrien took another bite of his omelet as his mind wandered. He had loved spending the last few days with his Father, but he and Ladybug needed to go to Tibet as soon as possible. He knew that with the power of the Horse miraculous, he could make it home easily enough, but it would be so much simpler if he had a clear schedule. Besides, things had been improving so drastically here at home that he was certain his Father would allow him a few days off. "Father, I've been thinking—"

His father glared at him and scolded, "Have you been listening to a word I just said? I would think you'd have a little more respect. After all, this is _your _future. When you grow into a man, I hope to pass the business to you. The habits you make now, the company you keep, the skills you learn are essential to ongoing success." Adrien ducked his head in shame. "Now, like I was trying to say—Mrs. Fitzpatrick is in from England for just a few days. We have planned several events, and because you speak English, we have arranged for you to be one of our translators."

Adrien rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "We have lots of translators, Father; and I… I was hoping… that is, I've been invited…"

"Enough muttering, Adrien. Gerard," Gabriel turned to one of the servants, "please make sure Chef has the menu approved by Nathalie."

Sensing that breakfast was about to come to an abrupt end, Adrien stood and frantically stated, "Father, I've been invited on a once-in-a-lifetime school outing this week and I'd really like to go."

Gabriel's eyes shot daggers at his son. "Excuse you?" He stood to his impressive height and clasped his hand behind his back.

"Sorry, Father, sir, it's just that this trip came up unexpectedly, and… it would be really good for my… my education…"

His head cocked to the side as Gabriel surveyed Adrien. "I cannot imagine any unexpected school trip could be more important than your family, Adrien."

"It's not, but I just thought, you know, since I've done some extra photo shoots and events recently, that I might be able to take this one break—"

"Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. _I _need you here."

Adrien sighed and sat back in his chair. "I didn't think it would be such a big deal."

Gabriel hesitated, then walked to Adrien's side and put a hand on his shoulder. "Perhaps it is because you are so young, but you don't understand this. You don't understand business or family obligations. That is all right. I forgive you." The smile he offered didn't reach his eyes, but Adrien assumed that was simply because his father knew the pain of losing a loved one too well. All Adrien could do in response was nod and pat his father's hand. By the time Adrien found the words to speak and mustered the courage to voice them, his father had motioned to Nathalie and the two had marched from the dining hall to discuss the next few events.

Adrien grumbled to himself as he ran up the stairs to change his clothes. That wasn't how such a critical conversation was supposed to go. Perhaps if he went to the conference first thing on today's schedule and toed the line all day, he could soften his father up to make the coordinated departure with Ladybug tonight? Feeling the need to be prepared for any eventuality, Adrien grabbed a backpack, stuffed in a few extra pairs of clothes and his Marinette-made Chat Noir suit, a toothbrush and razor, and his phone charger.

"Plagg, what else do you think I need to take? I mean, we'll have the Horse Miraculous, so we can get places, but… what do you think?"

Plagg rummaged through his fridge and pulled out a large chunk of cheese. "This." Adrien rolled his eyes before stashing the cheese carefully in a pocket of the backpack. "And probably plenty of cash."

Adrien pondered that, "Hm. I don't think I could withdraw a stack of yuan from our bank without drawing unwelcome attention."

Plagg groaned. "Fine, give me the account number. I'll pick it up for you while you're stuck in that boring meeting this morning."

"Thanks Plagg, you're a lifesaver," Adrien tickled Plagg's grumpy ears and pulled out his white and black cellphone to check on his bank account. However, his attention was diverted by a message from Marinette.

**Marinette: **Hey Adrien, can we talk?

He retrieved the necessary information for Plagg-who promptly phased through the window and off to somehow not-rob-a-bank-and fired a text back:

**Adrien: **Sure, you ok?

**Marinette: **Yeah, fine. Actually, are you available to call? Or can I come over?

The pit of Adrien's stomach filled with dread. What was so serious that she needed to talk in person? He checked the date—shoot, it'd been three days since the hot air balloon and since he'd kissed her.

**Adrien: **Calling you

He dialed her number; she picked up on the first ring. "Hey," she answered tentatively.

"Hey Marinette, I'm sorry I didn't call you back that night after… you know, our date. It's just—my Father's kept me pretty busy and…"

"That's cool, I expected as much," she responded simply. "I just wanted to talk to you before… That is, some things are going on in my life that I can't… I mean… ugh. Sorry. This is so awkward. You're busy all day?"

"Yeah," Adrien stood and finished packing a few more items in his backpack, "My Father wants me to be his translator for some lady from England."

"I see." Silence. He heard her whisper something.

"Is someone there with you?"

"What? No. Just thinking to myself."

"Oh." More silence. Finally, Adrien spoke, "Marinette, whatever it is that's bugging you, you can tell me, you know?"

"Th-Thanks, Adrien. Sorry that talking to you isn't my strong suit. I mean, I like talking to you! I am just crazy. No, not crazy! Just cra-cray-crayons!"

He laughed, "Marinette, deep breath."

She drew in a great deal of air, then began, "I'm sorry, Adrien, I always jumble my words when I'm talking to you."

He imagined her face in her hands with her blush creeping out under her fingers, or perhaps she was tugging on her pigtails and scuffing the floor with her toe. Either way, "It's super cute."

She let out a little squeak. "Adrien, I need to tell you. Ugh. You're _sure _you're too busy to meet in person?"

"I told you, my Father is helping me make some connections so I can take over the business someday."

"Oh, really?" she piped up, "I didn't realize you were interested in an ongoing career in fashion. Of course, you're excellent with modelling and stuff, I just always thought you'd go into science."

"Well," Adrien replied sheepishly, "yeah, I do really like science and mathematics, but my father _needs _me."

She was quiet briefly, before continuing, "I see." She didn't sound convinced.

"It's a good business, Father has helped me get name recognition in the industry, we already have lines in America, England, Japan, and Shanghai, and you should see the way Father lights up when I tell him I'm looking forward to it."

"Lights up?"

"Yeah. He looks at me different—like he's proud of me. Besides, fashion's not so bad, right? I mean, you love it."

"That's true," Marinette cooed, "I love being creative and making things. I love capturing another person's essence in fabric. I didn't realize we shared a passion for design."

He chuckled, "I don't know if I'd call it a passion for design, but I don't mind the business side, and I know it would make my Father happy."

"It's that important to you? Making your Father happy, I mean?"

"Well, yeah. Don't you try to make your parents happy?"

"Of course."

"Well, then, I don't see what the big deal is," he snapped, harsher than necessary, but he was tiring of Marinette's game of twenty questions. He softened his tone and redirected the conversation, "Didn't you have something you needed to talk to me about?"

"Oh, yeah," she trailed off again.

"Marinette. Just tell me."

He could hear her gulping for air and her feet pounding below her. He imagined her pacing across her bedroom floor and smiled. "Adrien, I… I need to talk to you about Friday night. When you kissed me. Well, I kissed you back…when we kissed, you know?"

"Yes, I remember," he joked. "I thought it was pretty nice."

"Yeah—no—I mean, yes it was nice, but don't you think we… I dunno… moved a little bit fast?"

He almost dropped his phone as he scrambled to sit up and focus. "No, not really. We've known each other for over a year, we've spent lots of time together, did _you _think we were moving too fast?"

"I guess not. I just… I don't know how to say this without hurting you, Adrien."

His heart leapt to his throat. No. She couldn't be doing this. Her voice had taken on that familiar edge to it, just like Ladybug's voice did whenever she was about to break his heart. "You like another guy?" This was _just _his luck. He'd been so blinded by Ladybug's brilliance that he hadn't noticed his friendship with Marinette developing into something so much deeper and better, and by the time he'd finally figured out his feelings for her and was ready to commit, she'd moved on.

"N-no," she stammered unconvincingly. "Really, that's not it. I just… have a lot going on in my life right now."

"Please don't say 'it's not you, it's me.' I watch way too many movies to trust that line."

She laughed that beautiful, musical, achingly lovely laugh. "I'm sorry it's so cliché. But it's true; I don't think I'd make much of a decent girlfriend for anyone right now."

"You're wrong."

Her voice broke and Adrien could tell she was only barely keeping her composure. "Adrien, if I told myself even a week ago that I'd be asking for a little time from you, I would have laughed. No, I would have punched myself and told myself to snap out of it. The truth is, I've always liked you. Ever since we met. But some serious stuff has come up recently and I… I can't do this right now."

"Stuff? Like what?"

She didn't respond for several seconds. "I can't say."

"I see," he echoed tersely.

"Look, if you just knew—there's… I dunno… a non-disclosure agreement, I guess."

"Non-disclosure agreement," he scoffed, "What are you, a secret agent for INTERPOL?"

She huffed humorlessly, "Something like that. What's important is that I do care for you, really I do. I just think we should take our time, you know?"

"It's got to be another boy." And then it dawned on him: it _was _another boy. It was Chat Noir. "Marinette, I really don't think—" he cut himself off. What was he going to say? _I really don't think Chat Noir would mind us dating? I really don't think you should be fawning over Chat Noir? I really don't think it's that surprising that _I _am Chat Noir and that you fell for me twice?_

"It's _not _another boy Adrien, I swear. And if you can't respect me when I say I need a little bit of time and space, then maybe we're not as close as I thought."

Dagger to the heart. "Marinette, I'm sorry, that's not what I meant. Of course you can have some space. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. I've just… never done this before."

"Me neither. Look, Adrien, I'm really sorry. I like being with you. Can we just be friends for a while?"

"Yeah, sure, of course."

"Ok. Well, I've got to go," she muttered.

"Me too."

"Then I'll see you later, I guess, at school?"

"Oh, yeah, I guess."

"Bye, then."

"Bye." He waited for her to hang up and then looked at his blank phone screen for a while. _It had only been the one kiss. And some hand holding. Maybe she flirted with other guys the same way she flirted with him. Maybe he misread the whole thing. _Adrien flopped on his bed and stared blankly out the window. A tiny warning in the back of his brain reminded him to keep his emotions in control—this was Paris, after all, and he couldn't afford to be akumatized over something as simple as a girl he'd only kissed once (that she recognized, that is). However, no black and purple butterflies interrupted his heartache. He wished one would. He wished he could shred something with no consequences… No he didn't. He knew he was being irrational.

Eventually, there was a rapid knock on his bedroom door. "Adrien, Mrs. Fitzpatrick is arriving in two minutes, your Father needs you at once," Nathalie's stiff voice barked from the hallway.

"Coming."

* * *

Marinette wiped the tears from her cheeks and Tikki nuzzled her forehead. "That was way harder than I thought it would be."

"I know," the tiny red kwami responded simply.

"It's just, with how dangerous Hawkmoth has become, and with how focused I need to be, it was the only choice."

"Marinette, I know."

"It's _not _because I have feelings for Chat Noir. I mean, sure, he's growing on me, but as a partner."

"I know."

"And even if I did like him, I can _totally _keep it professional."

"Marinette, I know!"

Marinette frowned and cupped her hands for Tikki to rest in. "I'm sorry Tikki."

She winked, "I know." Marinette checked the time on her phone. "Are you ready for another tough conversation?"

"Yeah, it's time. Spots on."

Ladybug placed her precious cargo in a red spotted backpack, then did a circuit around Paris, just in case anyone was watching. Just another patrol, right? She flew over her target twice to ensure it was safe before landing in a tree behind the Tsurugi's koi pond. She tossed her yo-yo and hooked it around the bedframe inside the open window, then noiselessly zipped inside. Kagami was seated at a simple white desk and raised an eyebrow as Ladybug slid to a stop.

"You're late."

Ladybug rolled her eyes. "By five minutes, tops. I wanted to run a quick patrol just to make sure everything was clear before coming."

"Very wise. I must confess I was surprised by your message." Kagami stood and walked to her bed so that Ladybug could have the desk chair she'd just vacated.

Ladybug sat and pulled off the backpack. "Desperate times call for desperate measures. I'm down to only a few people I can still trust."

"I'm proud to count myself among them."

"Alright, here's the deal. As you know, the kwami were called to the Miracle Box because another Box has been unlocked. We believe we know where it is, but I need to find who opened it, and why."

Kagami nodded. "Longg told me as much as he knew."

"Chat Noir and I are leaving Paris tonight. We will have the Horse Miraculous and be able to return at a moment's notice, but I don't know how long it will take us to track down this other guardian—if that's what they are. I can't leave the Miracle Box here, and I don't think it's wise for me to bring it with me. Kagami, you're the… the last one." Ladybug pulled out the oval box from the bag. It glinted in the afternoon sunlight. Kagami scanned the box, her face impassive. "I know it's a big responsibility. The Kwami are safe in the box, but in case of an emergency, your palm print will open it. Just for the time I'm gone, of course. Don't ask me how it works, it's a magic thing." Ladybug smiled crookedly. "So, I guess what I'm saying is, Kagami Tsurugi, here is the Miracle Box. I am entrusting it to you until I can safely return to Paris. You will use it for the greater good—only assigning Miraculous to trustworthy individuals as the circumstances might require—and returning it to me when you are done. Can I trust you?"

Kagami was transfixed for a moment. Finally, she looked up with determined eyes. "I will guard it with my life."

* * *

Ladybug fidgeted with the glasses in her hands before returning to pacing across their designated meeting spot. After another minute ticked by, she checked her silver cell phone and yo-yo for any messages from Chat; nothing. Worry settled in the pit of her stomach. Maybe he wasn't coming? No, that seemed unlikely; he'd been so excited to help just the night before. Maybe he'd forgotten the time or the place they'd decided on. Maybe he'd struggled to get his clothes together… maybe maybe maybe... Ladybug's head started to ache as she thought through every possible reason he might be—

The thump of feet on the sidewalk sent a wave of relief, followed by a crash of frustration over Ladybug. "You're late!" However, one look at his face and she knew something was wrong. "What is it?"

Chat blinked twice at her, then flashed his teeth in a dazzling smile. "I'm one-hundred percent fine and dandy!"

"No way. Your ears don't lie." He fingered his feline ears—they were flat against his hair. "Chat. You can talk to me, remember? Haven't we been through enough together?"

He sighed. "You're right. It's just… personal."

Personal. Their warning word. She took a deep moment. Maybe it was time to let personal things into the light. What could it hurt? Clearly, Chat Noir needed some guidance and friendship. Not to mention, if he knew who she was under the mask, she could let him know about her growing feelings for him and finally she and Chat could—

_NO. _Secret identities were the only thing protecting everyone Marinette loved—and that included Chat Noir—from Hawkmoth's sordid manipulations. It was her first and last line of defense, and she couldn't afford to even daydream about giving it up.

"Whatever you can say, I want to help."

He grumbled. "I don't think there's much you _can _do to help, even if I could explain the situation without giving away anything."

"Family? Friends? Girls?"

He frowned and toed the ground. His clenched fists were trembling. Ladybug stepped toward him tenderly, reaching out with her gloved fingers to stroke his cheek. At this distance, his nose looked stuffy and his eyes looked slightly bloodshot, even through the green sclerae of his transformation. Had he been crying? Or angry shouting, perhaps? "Chat, is someone hurting you?"

He recoiled at her touch while attempting to laugh. It wasn't a natural sound. "H-hurt me? What? No way. Of course not. I mean, no. Definitely not. Do you see any bruises? Nope, no way…"

Her eyebrows furrowed beneath her mask. "Not all hurts leave bruises. Yelling is another way people hurt others. So is calling them names, belittling them, or manipulating them. If someone is hurting you, I want to help you be safe." He winced at her words. Ladybug carefully laced her fingers in his and drew closer to him. She'd only seen him this intense a few times, and every time had scared her to death. "Chat, we don't have to go to Tibet. Not right now, at least. If you're not in a good headspace; if something is too much to handle right now, let's stay here. I'll help you through whatever it is."

He snapped to attention. "No! I don't want to stay here!"

She raised an eyebrow, "We're not going to run from your problems either—"

"That's not what I meant," he said, squeezing her hand and coming back to himself. "I had a rough day; that's all. I want to go. I need to go. You said it yourself—I'm the only one who can translate _and _pole-vault buildings."

She looked him over again. His smile seemed genuine now. "Are you sure? We can wait a couple weeks, even."

"Ladybug; what if whoever unlocked that Miracle Box is hurting someone or abusing the Miraculous? We need to get there right away."

"Will you promise to let me help when we get home?" she queried, running her fingers through his wild blonde mane. He leaned into her touch and purred softly.

"Anything you want, Milady."

"And you've got everything you need? I have no clue how long this will take."

"Yep, all set."

Her mouth suddenly felt like it was stuffed with cotton. The lump in her stomach morphed into a veritable ball of nervous worms. She swallowed hard and put on the glasses. "Then, let's do this thing. Kaalki, Tikki, unify!" Chat paused for her transformation to be complete, then squeezed her shoulder. "Voyage!"

The Paris night rent with a growing circle of light—a portal that revealed the ominous red gate of an ornate Chinese temple, shrouded in snow.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The gate creaked as it opened, revealing a slender man with a shaved head. His narrow eyes were cold and focused above his wide, twitching nose.

Ladybug rushed forward and babbled, "Hello! I'm Ladybug and this is Chat Noir, of course! I'm sure you've heard of us. We're from Paris. We got information, that is to say, our Kwami heard the call of another Miracle Box being opened and we wanted to know if you had any information—"

The man stared at Ladybug with a look of sheer confusion. Chat Noir patted her shoulder softly and stepped forward. He bowed at his hips, then quietly introduced themselves in rapid Mandarin. Already feeling horribly foolish, Ladybug took a pace backward and smiled politely. She could generally follow Chat Noir's side of the conversation, because he spoke a little more formally and slowly, but when the man spoke, his thick accent and rapid tongue left her in the dust. It was ironically odd how long a basic conversation seemed to take when you didn't understand what anyone was saying. She stood there with her feet freezing in the snow, smile plastered to her face, wondering what in the world they could be saying. The man in the long red robe kept shooting her sneering glances before responding to Chat Noir's questions. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, the man turned and started walking toward the Temple within. Chat turned to Ladybug and seemed pleased.

"His name is Kai, and he's going to bring our plight to the other trainees and curators."

"Doesn't he know who we are? Don't they know about the Miracle Box that was just opened?"

"He didn't say. He recognized us from the news, but he didn't sound too happy that we just showed up like this. Honestly, I wasn't sure he was going to let us in right away, so I think this is good progress."

The three of them tromped up the path to the main Temple entrance and inside to the opulent foyer. Kai's body language told Ladybug what his words told Chat Noir—wait here. Ladybug stomped her feet for a bit, grateful it was at least warm.

Chat Noir wandered a bit, examining the tall gold pillars and artwork around the room. Ladybug yawned, and he chuckled, "Tired?"

"Well, of course I'm tired. It's midnight. Just because we stepped through a portal doesn't mean I can't get jet lag."

"I think this might take a while. Come here," he offered, propping himself next to one of the pillars and offering his lap. She pondered, second guessing her feelings for him and his for her, before taking him up on his offer. She curled up on the hard floor with her head in his lap. He draped his hand over her shoulder and she discovered how comfortable a position this was.

"Thanks Chat."

"No problem, Milady." Chat purred softly and Ladybug was enveloped in his warmth. It seemed like seconds later that he was shaking her shoulder and pulling her to her feet.

A cluster of men in matching red robes were surveying them from across the hall. Chat Noir addressed them, and they spoke in terse whispers. Ladybug tried to look poised as she waited for the conversation to finish. Finally, Chat bowed respectfully and Ladybug followed suit. One monk led them back to the interior of the Temple.

"What did they say?" Ladybug whispered as soon as she felt comfortable.

Chat Noir frowned. "We've been permitted to stay here for a while, but they're not convinced we're worthy of information on the Miracle Boxes."

"_Worthy? _What in the—"

"I know. They kept calling you Fu's protégé."

"Oh, well, in that case—"

"It wasn't a compliment." Ladybug's heart sank. Chat continued solemnly, "I get the feeling they don't like us very much. I don't know why. But they will give us a room to stay and Kai will be around soon. Apparently they want to check to see if we're committed to the Miracle Box… or something like that."

"Committed? Like, loyal?"

"Yeah. I didn't really get it."

"So they won't tell us what we need to know?"

"They said they would consider it if we were found worthy. My guess is they've got some kind of initiation or training that we have to go through."

Ladybug crunched her nose in distaste. "This is stupid. Why are they being so difficult?"

Chat shrugged and stayed quiet. Ladybug suspected he knew more than he was letting on, that he was holding back something to spare her feelings, so she didn't press him further. They were given a room with blank paper walls, a small window overlooking the snowy courtyard. There was a tiny mattress on the floor and a lovely bamboo mat, a table under the window with a basin of water, but nothing else. Ladybug and Chat Noir both thanked the curator, who glared at Ladybug, bowed to Chat Noir, and then excused himself.

"So now we just sit here and wait?" she moaned at the closed door.

"I guess so. I wonder how long they'll make us hang out here," he mused as he looked out the window. The sun was fully up now, though Paris would still be blanketed darkness.

"Chat, why don't you try to get some rest for a bit. I'm going to drop my transformation and feed Tikki. I brought a backpack of supplies, including a mask, but I can't access it transformed."

"Me too," he nodded. I guess… probably we just turn around and don't look for a bit?"

"Yeah," she agreed. They took their respective corners and let the magic fall. Marinette quickly put on her mask before fishing a cookie from her bag to give to Tikki.

"Hey, did you hear that these cool shoes that Marinette made for me won first place at the _Gabriel _fashion contest?"

"Y-yeah, I did. That's cool. She did a great job with them!"

"Marinette is super talented and…" his voice faded away with a small choke.

"Chat, you ok?"

"Fine." He yawned noisily. "You know, I think I will take you up on that cat nap, if it's ok."

"Of course," she allowed, and turned to find him fully decked in the suit she'd made for him, including the long leather tail a group of nursery school students had decorated for him after he'd saved them during an akuma strike the previous summer. She smiled tenderly at the memory. He curled up on the tiny mattress and seemed like he was going to say something briefly, before rolling toward the wall and forcing his eyes shut.

Marinette released the breath she didn't realized she was holding. She wished he would open up to her. But then again, it was her own stupid rules that kept him at arm's length. "Chat Noir?" she whispered.

"Hm?"

"For what it's worth, I think _you're _super talented and amazing, and I'm really grateful you're here. Like, really really grateful. I couldn't do this without you."

She thought she heard him sniff, before his breathing slowed and the room was filled with his soft snores.

* * *

Kagami had re-read the same passage on weak acid titrations three times and yet couldn't recall one word of it. She took a large gulp of cold water and tried again. A sentence and a half in, her mind drifted off and she started tapping her pencil on her chemistry book.

"Longg," she croaked, "Anything new?"

The dragon Kwami smiled patiently at her, flew quietly to the Miracle Box and disappeared into its depths. He was only gone for a moment, but Kagami's breath still hitched in her throat. When he emerged, she held out a hand for him to nestle into.

"Nothing new to report. Wayzz and Barkk are the best trackers; they're keeping an eye on everything. We haven't felt anything new from the other Miracle Box."

She pressed her palms to her eyelids and pushed until little white dots popped across her vision. "I'm sorry, this is very nerve-wracking."

He patted her shoulder. "I've been around for a very long time," he rambled, "and _bluarrps—" _his mouth filled with bubbles and he glared at nothing— "My apologies, this Ladybug is the finest guardian I have known. She cares deeply for this city and each of the members of her team, both kwami and human."

Kagami nodded economically and returned to her attempt on studying.

A minute later, her mother's distinctive sharp tap on the door jolted her from her musing. "Coming, mother," she responded, but didn't even make it to the knob before the door was thrown open and her mother, followed by Nathalie Sancoeur, burst in.

"Mother, Madame Sancoeur, how can I help you?" Kagami yelped, stealing a glance at the Miracle Box—Longg had thankfully thrown a towel over it.

"Kagami," her mother barked, "have you heard from Adrien Agreste recently?"

"A-Adrien? No, not since our last fencing practice."

Nathalie pushed Kagami's mother aside, and she lost her balance and tumbled to the floor. Kagami rushed to help her back to her feet, but Nathalie thrust out a hand to stop her. "Tell me where he is. I know you've been in contact with him."

Kagami's blood was boiling. "I told you, I haven't seen him since fencing practice. That was five days ago. What's the matter, he gave Daddy Helicopter the slip?"

Nathalie's eyes flashed in anger, "How _dare you_ speak of Monsieur Agreste in such a tone. Madame Tsurugi, you allow such insolence from your daughter?" Nathalie rounded on Kagami again, "Where's Marinette Dupain-Cheng?"

Kagami gritted her teeth and snapped, "Why do you think I would know that?"

"You're her friend, right? I know you have information you're holding back-"

Kagami rolled her eyes and interrupted, "Yeah, I'm holding back information from you. Like what? That I'm somehow involved in some strange conspiracy to sneak Adrien out of the country or whatever? You're crazy."

Nathalie charged. Kagami stumbled backward and threw her hands up to defend against the impending blow, but it never came. Her attention snapped forward as her mother's white cane slid in front of Nathalie's foot. Nathalie careened out of control, only to be met with a sharp punch to the chest. Nathalie crumpled to the floor, gasping for breath.

"Do. Not. Touch. My. Daughter."

"Ma-Madame Tsurugi—" Nathalie choked.

"Get out. Get. OUT."

Nathalie clawed her way back to her feet, glared daggers at both of the Tsurugi women, and marched off. When Kagami was convinced the wretched woman was gone from the house, she bolted the front door and hugged her mother softly. The two sat down together, and Tomoe began stroking Kagami's hair.

"I apologize, my precious child," her mother crooned under her breath—Kagami wasn't sure her mother had ever called her _precious child,_ but then again, Nathalie had brought out new emotions the two Tsurugi women had never experienced— "I never suspected that Monsieur Agreste's most trusted assistant would become violent."

"Me neither," Kagami agreed. "Adrien used to speak so highly of her. And no—I really don't know where he is."

"Hush, Kagami-Chan, I know." Kagami's breathing calmed as Tomoe held her. "You're… You are a brave girl. I want to you know that, no matter how it may seem, I am, in fact, proud of you."

Kagami swallowed back the lump that suddenly formed in her throat.

"Thank you, Mother."

When the dust settled and Tomoe at last released her, Kagami returned to her bedroom and sent Longg back to the Miracle Box for any news from the kwami.

She almost instantly regretted it; the AkumaAlert app on her phone buzzed. "Longg!" she hissed at the box. No response. "Longg!" she insisted. Nothing. She opened her phone and surveyed the map on her phone. There was a ping over the Agreste mansion. Kagami wasn't surprised. "Longg! Come on!"

Another location on the map pinged, and then a third and a fourth. Dang. This akuma was moving fast. After what might have been a lifetime, Longg nonchalantly phased through the wall of the Miracle Box. He took a deep breath and drawled, "Trixx reports that all is well and Sass and I enjoyed a lovely game of chess—"

She grabbed him out of the air and glared, "There's an akuma! Longg, bring the storm!"

* * *

"This. Is. So. Stupid." Adrien grumbled as he rubbed the cramp in his hand. "Counting a thousand grains of rice with chopsticks?"

Ladybug looked up at him gently, "It _is _a little ridiculous, isn't it. Want to switch me for a while?"

He gladly took her up on her offer and used the opportunity to adjust his mask. "That was seven hundred and forty-five."

"And I just finished… uh, hemming… all those robes. They still need to be washed." The two stretched and switched spots. Ladybug started counting under her breath and Adrien dropped the robes into the big laundry tub. He'd seen enough old movies to know to scrub the robes on the big wash board. After that, though, he was unsure.

"Hey, LB, what am I supposed to do after I wash all the—"

"Gaa! You made me lose count!"

"Oh, sorry," he smirked.

"Dang, I'm pretty sure I was at… eight-sixty-seven? Or was it eight-seventy-seven?" She growled. He returned to her side to help her briefly.

"You're really good with those chopsticks," he complimented.

"What? Oh, yeah, my mom's Asian, so we eat with chopsticks a lot," she shrugged and started partitioning off groups of ten.

"Your… your mom.."

"Uh-huh. My dad's not, though he's—" her head snapped up and looked at his masked green eyes. "Oh, woops, I… shouldn't have said that, it was…"

"Personal? It's ok, I promise to forget right away." Adrien knew he would never forget—he never forgot any of the little slip-ups Ladybug made about her personal life, as much as he tried to. He knew she was creative, she was kind, she loved sweet treats and baked goods, and now he knew she had an Asian mother and a father who wasn't. Considering the blue depths of her eyes, he guessed her father must be Caucasian, possibly native French… who did he know who—

No. Adrien stopped himself in that thought. He would _not _invade her privacy by ruminating over her identity. He'd promised himself months ago that he would not chase down these tidbits that only drove her away further. Ladybug was his partner and best friend, and he would do nothing to jeopardize that any longer, including constantly pining after her. Besides, he had Marinette…

His heart gave a painful lurch. Marinette had broken up with him, and he really didn't understand why. He took a step backward and clutched the aching void in his chest.

"Chat, what _is it?" _Ladybug stressed. He didn't know how much longer he could keep up this charade. Every time he thought of Marinette, it was like a knife was being driven in deeper and deeper. He was surprised at himself—he'd only just begun to realize the strength of his feelings for her, and yet the pain was so acute that he wondered if he would have hurt this much over Ladybug… Yes, he would have; yes he did. He loved Ladybug, truly. But Marinette was home! Losing her was devastating. Maybe it was now time to come clean with Ladybug, to tell her that he'd been secretly hanging out at Marinette's house and was falling for her. He didn't have to include the way his father had berated the sweet girl when Adrien had admitted that he wasn't performing to standard because he was preoccupied by her, or the way Adrien had defended her and it had ended up in the massive fight that delayed his arrival the night before. He could simply say, _You know I've been hanging out with Marinette more and more, but she just broke up with me because she's got other things on her mind, but she wouldn't even tell me what. _Yeah. That would work.

He sat on the floor and dropped his head in his hands. "This is pretty personal, but I can't keep bottling it up."

The chopsticks clattered to the floor as bluebell eyes bored into his. "Chat, don't worry, I'm here for you."

"You remember Marinette?"

She smirked, "Yes, I do."

"Well, I've been—" The door clanged open and caught him off guard. Ladybug yelped and he scrambled to his feet.

Kai glared at Ladybug. _"I knew Fu's handiwork would give up! He couldn't make it twenty-four hours, she couldn't even make it ten! This will go down in our records as the laziest wielder yet!" _He laughed. Ladybug, who hadn't understood a word of the man's Mandarin, chuckled along with him.

Adrien put a hand out and shook his head, _"She did not give up—she was helping me!"_

The man turned his withering look to Adrien and sneered, _"Your task was to count a thousand grains of rice with chopsticks. Hers was to mend the robes and finish the laundry by hand. I see a thousand grains of rice on the table, but no completed laundry."_

_"She's been working on it all day without a break! You don't know who you're messing with!"_

Kai laughed again. _"Perhaps we'll see how you fare tomorrow."_

_"Tomorrow?" _Adrien groaned, _"You promised us that if we completed your ridiculous tasks that you'd share with us what you knew about the Miracle Box and who had access to them! You're a liar and a crook!"_

Kai growled and advanced on Adrien, _"I see you're as foul-tempered and sharp-tongued as that traitor, Fu. He must have taught you well. You're fortunate that we're even willing to give you and that… that _girl _another chance. I'd be careful not to squander it, if I were you." _Adrien clenched his fists and fought the urge to punch the guy. Like it or not, this was their only lead. _"New task: once she's finished with the robes, she can come out and muck the stables." _Kai sneered once more at him and marched off.

"What did he say?" Ladybug begged.

"He's…" Adrien bit back the rude word he wanted to say, "not going to help us."

"What? Why? We did all his tasks!"

"I know," Adrien replied, not wanting to trouble her with Kai's biased and sexist remarks. "He wants us to muck the stables next."

Ladybug pinched the bridge of her nose. "We did everything they asked and more."

"That's what I said, and he just insulted y-us more."

She thought for a while, then stood and placed her fists on her hips. "Well, we're just going to have to buckle down and work harder. We'll get through this."

Adrien wanted to be as optimistic as Ladybug, but Kai's biting tone still rung in his ears. "Maybe we should try a different tactic for a while."

"Like what?" Ladybug queried, lugging the dripping robes to be wrung out, "These guys will come around eventually. We just have to… you know, show them we're not going to give up when the going gets tough." She grunted as she lifted a load.

"I don't think they will come around. I think they're messing with us."

"Why would they do that?"

Adrien scuffed his toe on the ground, still not willing to repeat Kai's insinuations. "They just are, ok?" Adrien's stomach rumbled, and he realized they hadn't received any food or water since they'd arrived. "I think they're trying to torture us into giving up."

She shook her head. "These people are like us—hand chosen by the Guardian to wield a Miraculous. They're good people, just maybe a little jaded. I mean, wouldn't you be jaded if you'd gotten stuck inside a sentimonster for two hundred years? They probably lost their families and everything they knew is now so different—I get it that they're wary."

Adrien grumbled in his throat and tried to help her wring out all the robes. It was slow, tedious work. Adrien shook out one of the robes and hung it on the string to finish drying and noticed a new pocket on the inside. Looking closer, he could see that all the robes had new pockets. "Hey, Ladybug, when you were repairing and hemming all these robes, did you… maybe add a pocket?"

She blushed under her handmade mask, "Oh, yeah, well, I was thinking that maybe the curators and wielders might be more eager to talk to us if, you know, we kind of went above and beyond what they asked…"

The anger that he'd been pushing back for going on forty-eight hours now erupted. "They're taking advantage of you!" Her eyebrows knit together. "Don't you get it? They're not going to help us, they don't care about us! They're using you like a pawn and laughing at you behind your back!"

"Chat—"

"I'm not going to let them keep treating you like that!" He marched for the door, determined to go give the stupid wielders a piece of his mind, but Ladybug's slim hand grabbed his arm and pulled him around to look her in the eyes.

"Stop, Chat, you're angry. You're tired and hungry and I am too. This isn't you talking, it's the frustration."

"What do you know? You don't know anything about me. You think you do but you don't."

"Chat, please, stay," she pleaded with an edge of desperation in her voice. "You know I can't speak Chinese. If we just do what we've been asked, we'll win out in the end, I'm sure of it."

"You're sure? Don't you see, it never gets better! I try and I try and I think it's helping but it doesn't! I always toe the line, do everything he asks, and does he ever trust me for it? No. It never gets better."

Her eyes widened in surprise, "Wait, Chat, are you talking about Kai and the other wielders, or someone else?"

His stomach lurched to his throat. He blinked back his own shock. "You don't know anything about me," he eventually muttered, not knowing what else to say.

She stroked his arm gently. "It's ok, Chat. We'll get through this."

"I'm not going to keep up these stupid tasks." He pulled his arm away from hers and charged to the door.

"Chat! Please. Please stay."

"And why should I do that?" he shouted.

She winced, then squared her shoulders, "Because _I'm _the guardian. _I'm _in charge. I need you here."

Her last sentence echoed through Adrien's brain like a ghost haunting him. He felt nauseous and dizzy. _I need you here. _It trapped him, caged him, chained him down. His father's icy voice commanding him _I need you here. _His future swirled out of grasp. His hopes and dreams flamed and died in a heap of ash. He was _needed here. _So he stayed; he always stayed. Gasping, Adrien gripped his chest and crashed through the door.

"Well, if that's the case, I guess you know best, _Master," _he spat, spinning on his heel and bolting for the Temple entrance.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

"Chat, please wait, Chat Noir!" Marinette cried, dropping the laundry and chasing after him. Two steps out the door, she found his mask on the ground where he'd abandoned it. "Chat!" she yelled, but a pair of strong hands grabbed her wrists and forced her back. She looked up into Kai's stern face and growled, "Let me go."

He shook his head at her tersely, then said in very halted, broken French, "Go now, never see Miracle Boxes."

Marinette ran her thumb over the green stitching on Chat Noir's mask. She knew he wasn't going to be gone forever; he just needed some time to cool down. Still, the thought of abandoning her partner in his time of need made her bones ache. "He needs me, you don't understand."

Kai glared at her and escorted her back to the laundry room. He handed her a bowl of rice and a bit of chicken. "Eat, finish task. Then maybe Miracle Boxes."

"You're evil," she spat. She made for the door, but he pushed her back and locked her inside. "Chat!" she screamed as she pounded on the door, even though she knew he was too far away to hear her plea.

* * *

Adrien shed his mask moments after bolting from the laundry room, and his tail came off moments later. He needed air—needed to breathe. The front gate flew open at his touch and he was running, fleeing, every step carrying him further from the crushing torment of his feelings. _How dare she? How dare she use her authority as Guardian over me? We're partners! We're supposed to be friends! She wouldn't even be here if it weren't for me! Who does she think she is? _

Inhale, exhale, repeat. His feet now sunk in the snow and he forced them forward. Ladybug's words haunted him, _'I'm the guardian, I'm in charge. I need you here.' _I need you here. _We're supposed to be partners. You're supposed to trust me._

_I need you here. _Adrien was blindly running, only vaguely aware of the soft bundle of lights ahead of him.

Ladybug's voice echoed again through his skull, this time sounding lower and more articulate, colder, fiercer; _I need you here._ Steel grey eyes, hidden behind wire rim glasses over the red mask, flashed at him through his mind. _I need you here._ Soft pink lips were replaced with a hard, expressionless mouth and glinting teeth. Warm hands in his shifted to tight knuckles clasped behind the back. Ladybug's petite body morphed into a towering, immovable figure, sneering down at him through the fog of memory. He ran harder to escape the ghost chasing him, but he couldn't outrun it. It growled at him, taunted him, screamed at him from somewhere deep inside him. _Adrien, I need you here. Play it again. Maybe in a few years you'll show promise. Your mother never fidgeted. Marinette is using you. The only part of your name worth remembering is the last word of it. I need you here._

He clutched his forehead and found a road—much easier than clambering through snow. Much faster. The ghost was bearing down on him; he pushed harder. _You're so like her—so overly dramatic. Marinette, the designer girl? _The ghost closed the distance between them and pried his hands off his head. Its cold, dead voice drowned out his thoughts. _You know why they are 'friends' with you, right? With a few years of practice, you'll make it. When you grow into a man. _The ghost was winning. Adrien sunk to his knees, ripping at his hair to try to extract the ghost from within. "Leave me alone!" he screamed into the void.

An angel was fighting her way from somewhere in his chest—a white, shining figure with dark, rich hair and brilliant blue eyes. _You're amazing. You're so smart and funny. I'm in love with Adrien._

The ghost rounded on the angel. _The designer girl? You know why she wants to be around you, right?_

"No," he growled, "You leave Marinette alone."

_Ironic, don't you think, that she wants to be a fashion designer…_

_Chat, you're the strongest person I know. _

The duel within him sapped Adrien of his strength and he collapsed, too angry to even cry. "Shut up, just shut up!" He wrapped his arms around his face and rocked back and forth, trying to shelter himself from the wrath of the ghost.

A warm hand on his shoulder caught him by surprise. He flew to his feet and found himself looking down at a tiny, old Chinese woman. He turned in a circle and discovered the road had led him to the heart of a village. He must have voiced some things out loud. Awareness returned like a tidal wave, crashing over him. What an idiot he must have appeared to be—a lost, confused, deranged lunatic running and screaming through the streets. Adrien fell back on his extensive model training and pulled a mask of a smile over his face. He wracked his brain for a lie to hide the shame now trickling down his spine.

"My apologies," he tried in impeccable Mandarin, but the woman shook her head and took his chin in her fingers.

"You… you look so much like her," the woman's voice croaked from behind her wrinkled lips. "You even have the same haunt in your eyes. The same ghosts plaguing your past."

Adrien was terribly confused. "I'm sorry, I was training up at the Temple of the Guardians and I needed a break, it won't happen again, if you could just let me go—I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name-?"

"My name? My name is inconsequential. What _your _name is, young man, is far more important."

"Oh, uh," he stuttered, suddenly feeling incredibly naked without the mask he had ditched back in the temple, "It's really not… that is… I don't feel… You tell me who you are first. Madame…?"

She pulled his chin down so he was eye level. "There is no other explanation," she muttered to herself. "Was she your mother, or aunt?"

"What are you talking about?" he sighed, losing patience.

"Emilie Graham de Vanily."

Once again, Adrien's knees gave way and the ground came whizzing toward his head. His lungs couldn't bring air in fast enough. His fists turned into solid bricks and only the hammering of his heart kept him connected with the world around him.

"You must be Adrien, then," the woman muttered.

"Wait—" he croaked, barely able to hold on to the thread of consciousness that was threatening to break— "How do you know my name? How do you know my mother?"

She wrapped a surprisingly strong arm around his ribs and hoisted him to his feet. He hobbled along beside her as she guided him to a nearby house. "Sit down, I'll get you some tea," she smiled.

"Who are you?" he demanded. The house was cozy. She guided him to a soft chair and busied herself with a kettle.

"I met your mother a few years ago… let me think, maybe about two, two and a half? She was quite the impressive young woman."

"Who are you?" he repeated, and again she avoided the question by filling a bowl of rice and vegetables. A few minutes later, she brought a mouthwatering meal to Adrien, which he took hesitantly. "How did you know my mother?"

Her old bones creaked as she lowered herself to a cushion beside Adrien. "Which question would you like answered—my name, or how I know your mother? I'm afraid if I tell you the first, you will not be interested in hearing the second."

Adrien pondered while his stomach grumbled. He hadn't eaten since he'd left Paris, and that was approaching eighteen hours now. He'd gone longer without food, of course, but the smells wafting from the bowl in his hands were wildly tempting. The woman smiled kindly and urged him to take a bite.

"You eat, I promise it is safe."

He took a bite—other than some of the divine treats he'd enjoyed at the Dupain-Cheng bakery, this meal was one of the best he'd ever tried. "Mmm, thank you," he said between mouthfuls, feeling the anxiety diminish as he filled his stomach.

"There. I met your mother, oh, two, no, three years ago, I believe, very much like we just met now. She was wandering through the village and it was like we were drawn to each other."

"Wait—" Adrien swallowed his rice, "—my mother was here? I mean, I knew she came to China, but I didn't realize she'd been in this same village. What was she doing here?"

The woman looked Adrien over, "What are _you _doing here?"

"Uh—"

"Let's cut the pretense, shall we? I know all about the Miraculous. Your mother did as well. She came here for much the same reasons you're here, I'd wager." Her wrinkled slits for eyes fluttered and she smoothed her skirt. "She came here to learn more."

Adrien's head was whirling. His mother, his own dear mother, had been here, with this woman, discussing the Miraculous, shortly before she disappeared. "My father told me they had come on a trip for her health."

The woman snorted, "Is that what that vile man told you?"

Adrien reeled back, "Excuse me? My father is not a vile man!"

She shook her head and clicked her tongue disapprovingly. "Sounds like he's been telling you some lies, or at least partial truths. Would you allow me to set the record straight?"

Adrien took another bite of food and chewed while he evaluated the situation. He thirsted for more information about his mother. However, this woman was clearly antagonistic to his father, and a defensive wall seemed to shield his feelings about the only parent he still had. Yet, there was a gnawing, gaping doubt sitting squarely between his curiosity and his bucket of facts-the same doubt that had chased him from the temple to the village square below, the same doubt that whispered cruelly in his ear—and it was the doubt, more than anything, that told him to at least hear the woman out. "Go ahead."

She nodded. "What has your father told you of the Graham de Vanily twin rings?'

Adrien's eyebrow peaked, "They're the crown jewel of my mother's fortune, and a great family heirloom."

She pondered that, then asked, "And what do you know of the Miraculous?"

He thumbed the ring on his right hand absentmindedly, "I can hold my own."

She nodded as if her suspicions were being confirmed—it made Adrien uncomfortable to be out of the loop— "Then you should know that the Graham de Vanily twin rings are a latent Miraculous, separated from their kwami for centuries. The twin rings are from a Miraculous Box that was locked and lost with the fall of Rome—the Twin Rings of the Wolf."

Adrien gaped, "My kw—I mean, my research taught me that without a kwami, a Miraculous is little more than jewelry—"

"Little more? Perhaps. But still, certainly _more _than mere jewelry. A latent Miraculous retains certain powers, certain properties that only the wearer would notice. For instance, since I know your family is from Paris—you may have heard of Ladybug and Chat Noir?" Adrien hiccuped and nodded. "They are powered by Miraculous. They transform when a kwami inhabits their jewelry, right? But if they were to wear the jewelry all the time, they might feel a few lingering magical effects."

Adrien spluttered, "Magical effects, like?"

"Such as mildly enhanced senses; or if you wore the earrings even without a kwami, you might find some creative tendencies, or the ring and you might have a bit of a mischievous side."

Adrien felt somewhat exposed, so he pressed on, "So if my mother's twin rings were the latent Miraculous of the wolf… well, what does that mean?"

"The wolf's power was the power of self-discovery. The bearer had the power of empathic manipulation, though, once latent, that lingering effect wouldn't be nearly as strong. Still, they would be very aware of another's feelings, and they would always feel drawn to other Miraculous, like an extra sense, an instinct, an undeniable drive. When I met your mother, she told me she'd been brought here by some unseen force, as if her very blood was telling her where to go.

"However, your mother was in a difficult situation. You see, the twin rings are unique because they are meant to be worn by twins. Ever since Romulus and Remus—the famed founders of Rome—first wore them, they had been passed down from one set of twins to their heirs. As one twin found their soulmate, the rings would ensure another set of twins would be born, and so on. This continued from generation to generation all the way to your mother and her sister. But something went wrong, and there was not another set of twins to inherit the rings."

Adrien gasped, "What went wrong?"

The old woman's hunched shoulders shrugged under her shawl, "Neither your mother, nor her sister, found their soulmates. The magic of the rings split equally between the two of them, and, as I recall, they both had a child that seemed to have inherited the gene."

Felix's familiar face—nearly identical to his own—swam to the forefront of Adrien's memory. "That's right," he muttered, "I have a cousin who looks like me. We always thought it was funny."

"Funny? No. Magic? Yes. Of course, with the incompleteness of this generation, the pull of the Miraculous grew stronger and stronger. The twin rings needed to be reunited. Both your mother and her sister felt it; they both reached a point where reuniting the rings became a drive so powerful that they couldn't ignore it any longer. I don't know what your Aunt did about it, but your mother—who still had both rings—used them at the same time and felt drawn to come here. And that is when I met her."

Adrien leaned back. The woman was quiet for a while, letting him process what she'd just said. Finally, confusion knit his eyebrows together, "How do you know all this?"

She smiled in a familiar way, "I've always been very interested in the Miraculous. When I was a little girl, my grandfather told me stories about his brother, the last young man to be taken to the Temple for training. He told me about the day the Temple disappeared."

"Wait—your grandfather's brother was…"

"Wang Fu. That is right. I am Master Fu's great-niece, not that he ever knew I existed. Once he was taken to the Temple, he was never able to contact his family again. But we never forgot him."

Adrien's jaw fell slack. "Who _are _you?"

She said nothing, but rather stood and walked to a small bookshelf. She busied herself shuffling through some papers until she found what she was looking for. She came back to Adrien with a photograph pressed to her chest. "Here," she whispered, then handed it to him.

The first thing he saw was his mother's bright green eyes and pointed chin smiling at him. A lump rose in his throat and his eyes prickled with restrained tears. There she was, so unexpected, so lovely—smiling at him from the past. How he missed her! The sobs broke free like water from a dam. He didn't even try to hold them back. She had been his whole world and then more. Memories of her flooded across Adrien's vision—playing the piano together; speaking Chinese together to tease his Father, like some secret code; laughing in the courtyard filled with flowers as she taught him how to plant a garden; her holding him when he was a small child and singing quietly until he fell asleep; Christmas trees and Midnight Mass; visiting her on the set of her movie; sneaking croissants to the top of the Eiffel tower just in time to watch the sun rise… His heart ached. He traced the lines of her face with his finger. Maybe if he knew what had happened to her, he could find closure and peace. He wiped the tears away from his cheeks and looked at the photograph closer. With the suddenness of seeing his mother's smiling face past him, he recognized the small, ancient, Chinese woman next to her. Clearly, they really had known each other. His mother's arms were wrapped around this woman, who was also smiling as if they'd just shared an intimate joke. On Emilie's other side was Adrien's Father, but Gabriel's face couldn't have been more different than the two women. His lips were pressed into a line and his brow was furrowed. His hands were clasped in front of his chest, and Adrien noted with a hitch in his breath that he wasn't wearing a wedding band. The background was this same room, almost exactly as it appeared today. Incontrovertible evidence that his parents were here now rested in his shaky fingers. This woman knew his mother and laughed with her, just as Adrien had so many times. Something was off with his Father. Adrien ached to find out more. He needed the whole truth, and he needed it desperately. He looked up at the woman with pleading in his gaze.

She took a deep, steady breath, "My name is Mei Jian."

* * *

The best Ryuko could tell, the akuma wasn't _that _difficult. It wasn't really doing any major damage. She recognized Adrien's bodyguard, though this time he wasn't an enormous gorilla. He had been transformed into a monkey that was darting in and out of buildings and upending furniture and causing some disorder, but nothing was actually breaking. Ryuko considered calling Ladybug and Chat Noir, but ultimately decided against. This akuma was fast moving and seemed agitated, but it wouldn't be that bad. She knew she couldn't purify it, but she could confine it and maybe give Ladybug a few more hours. Besides, how would it look if she called for help less than a day after being given this enormous responsibility?

She slid down the side of the roof and ran toward the monkey. It stopped at Adrien's school—thankfully closed for Toussaint—and ran inside. Ryuko tore in after it. She could hear it crashing through the classrooms and followed it to the second floor. She drew her sword quietly before following it inside one of the rooms and locking the door behind her. "Ha! Got you!" she cried. It paused and looked at her, more curious than anything. It had blue fur and was wearing a black beret striped with purple, green, and yellow, but otherwise looked like a regular monkey. The akuma must be hiding in the beret. If she could grab that hat, she knew she could hold on to it until Ladybug and Chat Noir returned home… or at least, she was reasonably certain. "Give me the beret!" Ryuko ordered, though her voice quavered. The monkey grinned wickedly and started hurling desks at her. She deflected them with her sword and hopped over another. The monkey evaded her grasp and jumped to the light fixture. It pushed out and swung to another. Ryuko jumped and narrowly missed its tail. It was getting closer to the door—_no! It can't escape! _

"Water dragon!" The sensation of becoming fluid never ceased to amaze her. She was cognizant of everything in the room—the desks, the gritty chalkboard, the warm windows and boxes of supplies. She let herself expand and fill the room. The monkey looked down at the flood beneath him and panicked. It started hooting and screeching uncontrollably as the water rose closer and closer. Ryuko could sense his agitation as she corralled him to the ceiling. He took an enormous breath and let go, falling into the water. The beret slid off his head and floated above him. Ryuko willed herself back into human form, holding the beret triumphantly in her hand. The water suddenly gone, Adrien's bodyguard-slash-monkey found himself sitting on a desk, quite confused. "I'm just going to hang on to this thing until LB gets back," she smiled at him sadly. "Trust me, it's the easiest way—"

But without warning, a tiny purple akuma wriggled from the hat of its own volition. Adrien's bodyguard returned to normal in a bubble of black and purple. "Shoot, no, wait—" Ryuko called as she grasped at the black and purple butterfly, but she knew what was happening, and worse—that she had no control over it. Without a way to capture and purify it, that little butterfly would multiply. One tiny negative emotion from Adrien's bodyguard, and Paris would be inundated with dangerous akumas.

"Listen," she tried, "You've got to stay very calm. The fate of Paris depends on it."

The gorilla-shaped man glared at her and snatched Adrien's beret out of her hand, then waved it in front of her face.

"No, I don't know where he is. But getting angry about it isn't going to help. Look, I'll look for him with you. We'll find him together—"

He wasn't convinced. He shook his head and stormed from the room. She pinched the bridge of her nose and then muttered, "Open sky."

Longg munched on his Sichuan pepper and patted her shoulder gently. "Miss Kagami, it is alright, you did your best."

"Maybe I should just call Ladybug and Chat Noir now and admit defeat."

A mature, feminine voice surprised her from the open doorway, "Hang on for a bit, Kagami. The mission Ladybug and Chat Noir are on is critical, and they need time."

Kagami reeled around to come face-to-face with Marinette's mother, "Madame Dupain-Cheng! I'm sorry, I didn't see you there—"

"It's alright, Kagami, you don't need to put up some kind of façade with me. I followed the akuma here. I'm here to help."

"Ladybug is just a bit behind me—"

Sabine rolled her eyes, "I know exactly where they're at and what they're doing. Now, will you go get the Miracle Box so we can start calling in some help?"

"Wait, you know about the Miracle Box? How, what, I mean, _how?"_

Sabine smiled cryptically, "You know I can't tell you that. But I will say that I know Ladybug entrusted the Miracle Box to you while she's gone temporarily, and if she trusts you, I trust you as well. I'm here to help in any way that I can."

Kagami pondered this strange turn of events briefly, then nodded. "Longg," the dragon Kwami flew forward at the call of his name, "please contact the other Miraculous holders. We're going to need all hands on deck. If you can get a hold of Tikki or Plagg, maybe see if they can't hurry things along a bit." He nodded his affirmation and whizzed out of sight. "OK, Madame Cheng, let's go get the Miracle Box."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"Well, Tikki, I don't think you can get stables much cleaner than that," Marinette moaned with a self-satisfied grin. "They'll show us the Miracle Boxes now for sure."

Tikki stroked Marinette's cheek softly before returning to a pocket in Marinette's tunic top. She would have much preferred her purse, Marinette knew, but this costume was her last piece of identity protection—and ultimately the only thing she could still control. Somewhere, down where she barely knew it existed, she knew that if this trip to Tibet didn't produce some important information that would help them defeat Hawkmoth once and for all, she would have to give up the earrings forever. Alya and Luka knew her secret, and just thinking their names brought a lump to her throat. She couldn't afford to lose on this one.

Perhaps that's why she was still attempting these ridiculous tasks. Perhaps it was her stubborn pride. But whatever it was, she refused to quit. She _had _to get through to Kai and the other curators. She _had _to find out who had unlocked that Miracle Box!

Marinette put her handmade mask back on and tied Chat's abandoned mask around her bicep—she hoped he would be back soon and was determined to be ready as soon as he was—before squaring her shoulders and marching into the courtyard of the temple. She wanted them to know that she'd completed their task, without the assistance of her Miraculous nonetheless. "Hello? Is anyone here?" she called. The light had long since faded. Perhaps they'd gone to bed? She wandered inside the temple and out of the cold. Her footsteps echoed off the gilded walls and vaulted ceilings. "Hello?" she called again, "It's me, Ladybug. I finished the task. Kai? Anyone?"

Marinette wandered along, occasionally calling out again. She headed in the direction of the small room that she and Chat Noir had been assigned shortly after they'd arrived. "Kai? Someone?" she called once more, and this time she heard voices ahead. She followed the sound down a hallway and to a library room, which, by the smell of it, contained some incredibly ancient volumes. "Hello?" she called as she entered the towering expanse of books. Marinette's curiosity got the better of her and she ran to the stacks of texts. "Oh, Tikki," she muttered, "Look at this!"

Something strange stirred in Marinette—a feeling she'd only felt a few times, and only after becoming the Guardian—an instinct, an intrinsic knowledge. She knew these books. Or, at least, the Guardian knew them. It was as if they were communicating directly to her. The symbols on the binding were an unfamiliar code-like script, but she still knew what they meant. She was drawn inexplicably to one shelf at the back of the room protected by a glass case. She gasped as she read off the ancient titles: _"The Holder of the Snake, The Holder of the Rooster, The Holder of the Ox,"_ her breath hitched in her throat, _"The Holder of the Black Cat, The Holder of the Ladybug, The Holder of the Fox_… Tikki, I know what these books are." She slid the glass back and gently extracted the one for the Ladybug. The delicate pages let off a puff of dust as they opened to the first page. There was a picture of a young woman in a red spotted robe and a long headcovering. Her name was etched across the top, and below the portrait was a list of objects and dates beside them. The dates were mind-bogglingly old.

Tikki flew to the book and started shaking. Fat tears popped out from under her eyelids. "Marinette," she sobbed, "This… this is…"

"Your first holder?" Marinette offered her tiny kwami tenderly.

Tikki hiccuped and nodded. Marinette flipped through a few more pages. Some of the holder's sections were extensive, others lasted only a few paragraphs. Tikki fawned over each. "Some of these names I haven't heard in ages. Sweet Agathea, oh, and Anunnaki—how I miss them!"

"Tikki, you didn't write this, though, did you?"

"No," she shook her tiny head and turned the page, "when the earrings are in use, the knowledge and power of the holder are recorded here, by magic."

Marinette's heart started hammering and she flipped to the back of the book. She found very young pages and her breath caught as she found a portrait of herself, pigtails and all. In gold writing across the top of the page was scrawled _G. Marinette Dupain-Cheng. _"Tikki!" she cried, "I'm in here!"

"Well, of course you are."

"G? What's the 'G' for?"

"Guardian, of course." She fingered the photograph tenderly.

"Whoa!" Marinette started scanning over the pages. It was Ladybug's life history—all of it, right here. Her use of power-ups, dual-wielding, every Lucky Charm she'd ever conjured, the number of times she'd used Miraculous Ladybug to rectify akuma damage (dang, had Hawkmoth really sent out _that _many akumas?)… "Hang on," Marinette thought out loud, "Hawkmoth. If I have this journal about me, Nooroo should have one about him!" Marinette dropped the book to the ground with a thud and pressed her nose to the glass case, chanting the names as quickly as she could—"The Monkey, the Dragon, the Pig, The Cow… The…"

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?"

Marinette screamed and whipped around. Kai and four other austere men were crowding her against the case. She'd been so absorbed in the book she hadn't heard them enter the library. "I'm—I'm sorry, I finished the task and came looking for you and nobody was around! I-I hope you're happy with the stables, and I got all the laundry completed and even upgraded your robes a bit, thought you might appreciate some new pockets and stuff—" The men glared at her more nastily. Oh right, she was babbling away in French again, wasn't she.

_"I apologize," _she attempted in her broken Chinese. _"I am Ladybug. I eat pickles."_

One of the back curators chuckled before getting a deadly look from Kai.

"You should not be here," Kai growled in his thick accent. "We go back to room. Sleep now. You finish task in morning."

"No, I finished!" Marinette pleaded, giving up on attempting more Chinese. "I'm done! It's all clean!"

Kai's bald head wrinkled with distaste, "You done when we say. Tomorrow. Sleep now."

One of the other curators grabbed her shoulder and started pulling her from the library. "No, wait, I just need to look at one of these books. It will tell me who Hawkmoth is! Stop!" A second grabbed her other wrist and the two were dragging her away from the life-saving book she knew had to be there, it just _had to—"_Stop! Let me go! Leave me alone! I did what you asked, now give me the information I need!" They pulled harder. She dug her heels into the ground, but without her super strength, she couldn't fight off five fully-grown men.

"Shut up, stupid girl," Kai growled at her.

"Let me go!" she screamed, and as a last resort, "Tikki, Spots on!" The hands didn't release as the magic washed over her, but her muscles suddenly felt tighter, her limbs more powerful, and she shrugged them away. "_Don't touch me!" _she declared.

The men skittered away as if they'd been shocked. Ladybug whipped out her yo-yo and started spinning it instinctively.

_"You listen to me now. I am sick and tired of your stupid tasks. I should have listened to Chat Noir hours ago—you're not interested in helping us, you're a bunch of self-serving jerks who have been given too much free reign for far too long. Well, I'm the Guardian of the Miracle Box, and I demand you show me what I want to see, now! Where are the other Miracle Boxes? Who opened the one that called my kwami? And I need the journal of the Moth—'The Holder of the Butterfly!'" _

The five men stood there, jaws slack. At last, Kai spoke, "I thought you couldn't speak Chinese."

Of all the things he could have said, she didn't expect that one. "I… I don't…" Ladybug stuttered.

The man who had chuckled at her mispronunciation of 'pickles' pushed Kai aside and growled at the others, "I told you she was the Guardian and that we should show her more respect!"

Kai sneered at him, "Shut up. A girl can't be Guardian, you know that."

"Are you kidding me? Throughout history, girls have been every bit a successful wielder as boys. Why shouldn't they be a guardian as well?"

Another curator chimed in, "The journals of the guardians have always indicated it must be male—"

Ladybug's sole ally fired back, "No, the journals of the guardians have said no such thing. Just because the Guardian has always been male doesn't mean they _must _be male. Besides, there's been multiple examples of relatives of Guardians-"

"Would you please stop talking about me like I'm not here?" Ladybug shouted, slamming her foot in the ground. The floor creaked. Again, the five men snapped to attention, gaping at her.

The kindest man stepped forward and said slowly, "You understand what we're saying?"

"Of course I do, I'm right here."

"We've been speaking in ancient Chinese; the tongue of the Miraculous." Her eyes slowly widened. "You admitted yourself that you don't speak Chinese, is that right?"

"Yes," she muttered, "I've been taking lessons, though, and I can understand a lot more than I can speak—"

He shook his head, "The Guardian has a unique gift to be able to speak the tongue of the Miraculous when transformed."

Understanding dawning on her, Ladybug inhaled, "Well, yes, I am the Guardian. Master Fu transferred his power to me last Spring."

Kai's nose wrinkled again, "'Master Fu,' you say? That traitor? He destroyed the temple and abandoned us, and didn't even try to release us from Feast's grasp—not for two hundred years.. He was no _Master._"

"Like it or not, Kai, he still held the power of the Guardian, and that was his to pass on, whether by blood or by choice," Ladybug's ally pressed.

"Hold your tongue," Kai snapped at him, "I'm the senior curator, I'm in charge around here, not Fu, not you, and not this French child!"

Ladybug's blood started boiling again. "You think you're in charge? What have you even done to help anyone? Hawkmoth has been wreaking havoc on Paris for over a year and Chat Noir and I have been fighting him back on our own. You won't even let me look at the book when it could end the terror once and for all!"

Kai lunged at her. Ladybug cocked her fist and let it connect with Kai's nose. A second fist landed in the soft part of his belly, and then she spun and extended her leg. The kick to the chest hurled him across the room, where he collapsed in a heap of scarlet fabric. She crouched and started twirling her yo-yo again, instinctively returning to a defensive stance. Her heart was pounding.

Kai stirred from his landing spot. He moaned as he sat up. His eyes were wide, his forehead wrinkled, and blood was gushing from his nose.

_Blood_. Ladybug's yo-yo hit the ground. What had she done? In all the attacks and all the fights she'd engaged it, she'd never drawn blood before. She'd never attacked an unprotected civilian like that—all her attacks were against akumas and sentimonsters and other Miraculous holders protected by magic. The image of her raw power displayed on the face of this pathetic man frightened her to her core. She was supposed to be the _Guardian_. She was the hero of creation and healing. What had she done? Who even was she? Ladybug stumbled backwards. "I'm… I'm sorry," she gasped.

She bolted. All she could think of was finding Chat Noir and getting out of here. The front doors passed her in a matter of seconds, and, in the snow beneath her, she saw footprints with a very familiar paw-shaped tread embedded in them. "Chat Noir!" she screamed into the frigid night, and let the frustration, anger, and fear fuel her muscles as she ran to the twinkling lights of a village in the distance.

* * *

Sabine looked at her phone again, even though she knew there would be no change. Marinette wasn't answering any messages, whether from her teammates, a kwami, or her mother. She cursed herself silently for letting Kagami take a stab at the akuma herself, but then gently reminded herself that her reasons were still valid—Kagami needed a chance to prove herself every bit as much as Marinette's other teammates. No, she wouldn't blame herself or Kagami for the situation at hand, as desperate as it was. All around town, monkey replicates were forming. It was Ironheart all over again; at any moment, Adrien's bodyguard would feel some negative emotion and then it would be chaos of the worst degree.

Sabine left one last desperate message on her daughter's voicemail, "Marinette, we need you to come home and save Paris. You can get back to Tibet as soon as possible, but things are getting bad here. Love you."

She ran out to the school courtyard.

"Oh, uh, hey there, Madame Dupain-Cheng," King Monkey grinned sideways, "I, uh, didn't know you were here."

"Yes yes," she sidestepped, "I'm here helping you and Ryuko. We've got quite the situation. Ryuko will be right back with help." He looked totally lost, sweet child. "Ladybug and Chat Noir were on an important mission, and they will be back very soon."

"Sorry, but what are _you _doing here?"

"Just in the right place at the right time, I guess," she answered cryptically.

Mylene—no, the mouse hero, Sabine corrected herself; Mylene would want to keep her identity quiet, even if Sabine recognized her immediately—came barreling into the courtyard. "Hey, King Monkey," she puffed, "Sorry I'm late; I didn't know if I was really invited or not, seeing how I've never actually fought off an akuma—"

King Monkey smiled and walked to her and patted her shoulder. "It's fine, Little Mouse. You're definitely on the team."

She grinned. "Little Mouse… that sounds good."

Sabine stepped toward her and out of a shadow, then gave her most motherly smile she could muster, "That's right, Sourinette."

"What's _she _doing here?" Mylene hissed at King Monkey, who only shrugged before they were interrupted again by Ryuko and a very winded Max Kanté. Ryuko had a red and black spotted egg-shaped box under her arm.

"Thanks for coming," Ryuko announced, clearly trying to muster courage. "We've got a problem, obviously. Ladybug and Chat Noir are out of town, and our efforts to reach them have failed. King Monkey and, sorry, what's your name?" she asked Mylene.

She smiled proudly and replied, "Sourinette." Sabine winked at her.

"Alright, King Monkey and Sourinette, you two start spreading the word. We need people to hunker down and stay calm. There's too many akumas already as it is, even though they're still inactive." The two nodded and tore off, already calling Nadja Chamack as they disappeared from the courtyard. "Max, I'm sorry you don't have a Miraculous right now—"

He smiled, "That's ok, I know Ladybug and Chat Noir need Kaalki more than I do right now. I've always been better behind the scenes anyway, running the coms and the like. In fact, I've just finished upgrading Markov's internal processor, and he's operating at a seventy-five percent—"

"Sounds great," Ryuko interrupted, "keep trying to contact Ladybug and Chat Noir, ok?"

"On it," he grinned, and took off.

"That just leaves us," Ryuko gulped, looking at Sabine. "Madame Cheng, I need more help."

"Please call me Sabine."

Ryuko nodded fervently and returned to the box. "I've been thinking about this a lot, and I think Ladybug would agree we need all hands on deck. This is the Miraculous of the Tiger. I know Ladybug has a big speech she always gives with these things, but I'm not very good at speeches. Just… bring it back, ok?"

"Ok," Sabine patted Ryuko's hand while slipping the panjas bracelet over her finger and wrist. "I'm not going to tell you how to run things, but I know of another mother in Paris who is eager and ready to help you."

Ryuko chewed her lower lip. "You think?"

She patted Kagami's shoulder, "Yes, dear. She loves you and will make a terrific hero. Something Ladybug taught me was that when things get difficult, you need the people you love most on your team. I know you might have had a strained relationship with her in the past, but she brings out the best in you. Go, talk to her."

Kagami gulped and nodded, her dragon horns wagging slightly on her head. "I don't know how much more time we have before all these monkey akumas are activated; would you help me round up anyone else we can find?"

They both looked at the miracle box. The snake and turtle bangles sat there, alone and useless. But there was one more that hadn't been touched in months. Sabine reached in and lifted the bee-adorned hair comb and thumbed the delicate teeth. "I'll talk to her."

"Ok." Kagami collected the thumb ring of the Rooster before closing the box and tucking it under her arm. "Madame Cheng, uh, I mean, Sabine? Thanks. And be safe."

"You too, dear. Roarr, Stripes slash!"

* * *

"I can't breathe," Adrien whimpered as he gasped for air. "You—You're _Mei Jian?_" The old woman nodded. "You knew my mother? I… I asked my father about what happened to her and he told me about you. He said you were the last one to see her and that he's tried to launch investigations but they always came up short!"

Mei Jian tentatively sat next to Adrien. Her presence was very peaceful, though Adrien's heart was anything but. "I warned you that you might not like what I have to say. I'm afraid I don't have anything positive to reveal about your father."

Adrien gulped down more air and the words tumbled out as he thought them. "I don't care what your opinion of my father is; tell me everything you know about my mother. Tell me what happened when she visited, when this photograph was taken."

The woman ran her fingers through her grizzled hair, leaned back slightly, and closed her eyes, then launched into her story, "Like I told you, all my life I have learned about the Miraculous. Some was mere rumor, some was the memory of the town, but always I felt connected to it. I had an insatiable need to learn more. As a child, I thought it was just a passing fancy. But when I became an adult, especially after my father died and only I remained as Fu's last relative, it became an obsession. I found a book filled with ancient text in the possession of a friend. It had pictures of Miraculous holders and, while I could not read the words, I knew it had to be of value. I studied it carefully.

"Life seemed to pass by slowly. I lost hope that I would ever find out more. Then, one day, as if by some magic, a beautiful young woman and her husband visited this village. When I saw her, it was very much like when I saw you just now. I can't fully explain, but I was drawn to her, and she to me. She spoke beautiful Chinese, just like you do. Her husband did not. He waited impatiently while she and I got to know each other. She told me her name was Emilie Agreste, and that she was a member of the Graham de Vanily family.

"Over the course of many days, we studied together and discovered that she had the twin rings of the Wolf. They had been passed down from generation to generation and now were calling to her. Just like I told you, the magic had gone unfulfilled, and the longer she and her sister were without their soulmate, the stronger the pull would become. I discovered that she had, in fact, found the love of her life before marrying Gabriel, but she had turned him down because of a family obligation to unite with the Agrestes."

Adrien gasped, "Wait, my mom was… in love with someone else?"

Mei Jian hesitated, "If this is too troubling for you, we can wait—"

He shook his head fervently, "No, I need to know everything."

She nodded and continued, "Yes, his name, if I recall correctly, was Athanasius. But when your mother's sister was forced into an arranged marriage, Emilie gave Athanasius up to protect her sister's heart. She took the arranged marriage instead."

"So," Adrien said, feeling the tears rising to the surface again, "my parents never loved each other?"

She gently reached a wrinkled hand out, "I know they cared for each other deeply. I believe they tried very hard. Most of all, I know Emilie loved you more than anything. She told me how hard it was to come here to Tibet without you. She told me how you were the only reason she had come—to spare you from the pull, to find out how to heal the magic, to fix everything. You were the light of her life, Adrien."

He choked slightly as Mei Jian paused. "Sorry," he croaked, "it's a lot to take in."

"There's more."

"I know, please continue."

She steeled herself, then her raspy voice pressed on, "So your parents were here and we began testing her latent Miraculous. We studied the book I had and discovered it was a grimoire full of ancient knowledge. Gabriel spent his days at the local Inn; Emilie came here. We found a section of the grimoire about the twin rings and how they could be used for tracking other Miraculous. She gave me one and kept the other. We put them on and," she started shaking, "and it started working. Like an Ouija board, pulling us together, moving us out of here and up the hill, toward the…"

"The temple?" he supplied.

She nodded desperately. "I had been up there more times than I could count. I knew where the temple was rumored to have stood, but at the time it was gone. I had searched those fields every spring and summer. The day Emilie and I went, it was winter and the snow was deep, but we couldn't stop ourselves. We marched straight up that hill and let the magic guide us. Gabriel waited. And Adrien, we found it! Two of them, buried in the snow, as if they'd been waiting there for just the right person to find them."

"Miraculous?"

"Yes. We picked them up and prepared to return back to the village, and that's when—" her voice broke and she started shaking even harder as she repressed sobs.

"What? What happened?"

"He attacked us. He started screaming about how we were too stupid to know the power we were holding, and he snatched the one from Emilie's hands."

Adrien shuddered, "My father?"

She nodded and grasped Adrien's hand, "Yes. Gabriel had been watching from afar. She'd confided everything to him. He'd pretended not to care, but once we found the Miraculous, he betrayed her. She kept crying, 'How could you? How could you?' and my heart was breaking for her. I tried to stop him, but he was so much stronger than me. He put on the peacock brooch and the kwami burst forward, so excited to be free of her sleep. Emilie and I didn't know what to do or the danger we faced. The kwami told Gabriel how to use the Miraculous and, in his haste, he transformed and tried to prepare a feather to create a sentimonster. But something was very wrong; Emilie and I both noticed that the Miraculous seemed damaged. Emilie started shouting at him to take it off, to stop, but he refused. He poured his energy into the feather, but it… it exploded. He became dizzy and weak and he collapsed. I called for a doctor but could feel his pulse weakening. He was dying and there was nothing I could do.

"Emilie, she was beside herself. She was desperate to save him. She put on the other Miraculous—the butterfly Miraculous—and asked the other kwami what to do. He said the peacock had been damaged on the day the temple had disappeared and that anyone who used it would be permanently scarred. She was so scared, Adrien, so terrified. The second kwami said his power was to feed energy into another person and give them powers and strength. Emilie didn't hesitate; she called on the butterfly kwami and stood there with beautiful purple wings and summoned a white butterfly. She poured every ounce of strength she had into it, and when it was sparkling with golden light, it flew to him and entered the scarf on his chest. It gave him strength. He was enveloped in the golden light and he came back. I thought briefly that everything was going to be alright, but when he stood up, she collapsed. She had given him all of her core strength; she kept nothing for herself. I…" Mei Jian continued through her sobs, "I told him to take off his ascot, to tear it and release the butterfly that was connecting them, but he refused. He knew that if he did, he would be just as weak and near death as before.

"Now she was in the same state he had been, but he wasn't interested in saving her. He was so much stronger than before—he… he hurt me…" Mei Jian rubbed the back of her arms with the memory of pain, "I couldn't stop him. I couldn't help her either. She wasn't moving, just lying there. He scooped her up and took her with him. I chased after them, but in case you didn't notice, I'm not as young as I once was, and he took her. He took both Miraculous and he left.

"I've still been watching, of course. I've watched as Hawkmoth started terrorizing Paris. I've watched as Ladybug and," she smiled at him warily, "Chat Noir stopped him time and time again. A few months ago, the temple reappeared and I've been looking for a way in and past the stupid curators to try to contact the other Miraculous holders. At last, last week, I was able to break in while they were all distracted and I stole a Miracle Box. When I touched it, it came to life. And not long after that, you came."

Adrien gripped his temples and rocked back and forth. The silence was deafening.

"Adrien?" Mei Jian's gentle voice whispered.

He was only aware of his hammering heart and whirling thoughts. "My father used the peacock miraculous, but it hurt him. My mother saved him with the butterfly by sacrificing herself," he chanted under his breath, "Is she alive?"

Mei Jian whispered, "She must be, because how else would your father still be standing? It is only her continuing sacrifice that prevents the damage of the peacock miraculous from taking hold."

A vision of Lila Rossi's vacant eyes haunted Adrien's memory. He knew what Miraculous damage looked like. "He has her. She's alive. He had the peacock miraculous… and… and…" the wind had been knocked from his chest, "and the butterfly miraculous. He owns the butterfly miraculous. Mei," he whispered, looking up into her rich, wrinkled brown eyes, "my father is Hawkmoth."


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Chloe Bourgeois sat on top of Le Grand Paris by her bee spotlight. It wasn't turned on; it was dead and cold, just like her last trace of hope. Still, she found a cruel sense of comfort up here during akuma attacks. She had convinced herself once that the reason was because it was secluded and akumas rarely got close, even though that was a lie.

She'd tried to help. At first, she'd made a series of anonymous, positive comments on the Ladyblog. Then, she'd tried reaching out to the only person who seemed remotely connected to Ladybug—Alya Cesaire. It still made Chloe's stomach turn to remember the lengths she'd gone to to suck up to Alya, but being away from school made things difficult. For one thing, Chloe's mom had taken her to New York for the bulk of summer break (which had been the most utterly ridiculous trip filled with nothing but being left alone in hotel rooms for hours and hours). Second, Alya and the rest of her friends had seemed inordinately busy. Of course, there'd been a huge sentimonster fiasco, but certainly Alya could have found a moment to return just one of her text messages?

Chloe looked at her perfectly manicured nails and found no comfort in their beauty; she knew exactly why Alya hadn't returned her messages. Oh, she put up a front around everyone else, but Chloe knew that's she'd flippantly burned bridges that she now mourned. Every day that slipped by without talking to Ladybug was one more that felt forgotten, a lost opportunity to make amends.

The truth was, though, that this was the only place Ladybug would know to find her. She had tried to be angry at Ladybug for months now, but every day that had passed had been another nail in Queen Bee's coffin. She knew she'd messed up. She'd sided with Hawkmoth, however temporarily, and it had destroyed Ladybug's trust in her. Of course she complained about it to Sabrina or Jean-what's-his-name whenever she got the chance, but all her complaining and blaming and shaming others led to the same, horrible conclusion: Queen Bee would never save Paris again, and it was entirely and completely her fault.

She looked at the AkumaAlert app on her phone and winced—the hundreds of blue dots all over the city map had started moving. So that was it. Whatever akuma Ladybug had failed to nab was now rampaging again. Chloe grumbled and kicked at the rooftop surface. Ladybug _obviously _needed help, but because of her own stupidity, it was not going to be her. What was it her mother had said? _'You can't blow chances like that, Katrina. You had one shot to be something special and you blew it. Despite what they say on those utterly ridiculous cartoons, life doesn't hand you an infinite number of golden opportunities. Now, stay here while I see if even one of these stupid American schools will accept you…' _They hadn't. Even the desperate American schools had recognized Chloe's unremarkable future, and far too soon, she'd found herself on a flight back to Paris and taken a new seat in the local Lycée.

"I'm sorry," she whispered into the evening air, "I know it's far too little far too late, but I'm sorry. Utterly sorry."

A massive crash sounded below her, and Chloe ran to the edge of the rooftop and peered down. Half a dozen blue monkeys with black berets were wreaking havoc—upending cars, smashing windows, tossing bricks, frightening the panicking crowd. Chloe watched in horror as one of them chased down a young girl. "Hey!" she screamed at it, even though she was six stories above them, "Leave her alone!" The monkey was advancing. Chloe looked around desperately and decided on her shoe—she pried it from her foot and hurled it with all her strength. Miraculously, it clocked the monkey in the head with just enough force to knock off its beret. The monkey froze without its hat, back to a harmless blue statute. A light turned on in Chloe's brain—the akuma must be in the beret!

She ran as fast as she could, bouncing on her heels as the elevator crawled to the main floor. Barreling into the street, Chloe started screaming and flapping her arms to get the attention of the akumas now destroying a flower shop. "Hey, hey you bozos, over here!" She knew that Ladybug, wherever she was, would be working on taking down the main akuma, but if she could limit the damage here and now, she would. Her screaming worked—four monkeys charged her. She picked up a broken traffic sign pole and started swinging. She knocked off two hats easily and the monkeys froze. One monkey caught hold of the end of her makeshift bat and she swung it hard—the monkey went sailing down the street. The other pounced and caught hold of her sunglasses. It snapped them in half and started ruffling her hair.

"HANDS OFF MY HAIR!" she screamed, grabbed the monkey with her bare hands and ripped off its hat. The monkey she'd sent sailing made its way back to her. It was clawing at her as she kicked out hard and managed to knock off its beret. "Ha! Not so tough now!" she grinned at the four blue statues beside her. She collected the berets and stuffed them in her bag, then zipped it shut. She might not have a magical yo-yo to purify them, but she could hold on to them until Ladybug finally took down the original.

A quiet clapping sounded behind her; Chloe whirled around to see an unfamiliar superheroine approaching her. The woman was older than the other superheroes of Paris—maybe in her thirties or forties? White and black tiger stripes hugged womanly hips. Black sleeves led to clawed fingertips, and the mask peaked on the corners, holding back ribbons of silky black hair. Even hidden behind her mask, the woman's eyes were soft and kind. "That was very brave, Chloe," she said.

"Who are you?" Chloe snapped, reverting to her self-preservation mode.

"You can call me Sibérienne. I'm a friend of Ladybug's."

"That's obvious. Where else would you get the Miraculous of the Tiger?"

Sibérienne smiled at her warmly. Despite having just met her, Chloe felt her guard dropping. "I came to see if you're ready."

"Ready? For what?"

"To rejoin the team." Sibérienne held out an open palm with a very familiar hair comb on it.

Chloe reached for it, then pulled back, "No, I can't. It wouldn't be right for me to be Queen Bee again. I've betrayed Ladybug and Chat Noir and put them in terrible danger. Of course, nobody will ever be as incredible as I was! But it just wouldn't be right."

Sibérienne's eyes scrutinized her, "If that's how you feel, I must respect it."

Chloe's heart clinched. Who even was she anymore? She'd yearned for nothing more than to use the Bee Miraculous again for so long, and here she was given the chance and she turned it down? She turned and started walking away and hoped that Sibérienne wouldn't see the tears welling behind her lashes.

"Just so you know, _I _think you're pretty amazing." The words brought Chloe up short. She'd never been called amazing in her life, except perhaps amazingly stupid or amazingly annoying. "You just saved all these businesses and people from those monkeys, and you did it without a Miraculous. And don't think I haven't noticed you these last few months. You've tried to be a good friend, haven't you."

Chloe sniffed and shuddered. "M-my mother says that once you blow your golden opportunity, you don't get another."

"Chloe," Sibérienne's quiet voice invited, "your mother is wrong. As long as you're really sorry and are eager to change, you get as many chances as you need to get it right."

Chloe still didn't dare hope. She turned back to the tiger heroine. "I _am _sorry. I wish I would have gotten the rabbit miraculous instead of the bee one so I could go back in time and change everything."

"Is that so? You'd like to go undo the past?"

Chloe thought through that idea slowly, "No, I don't. Because as bad as I feel about it, important and good things happened because of my stupid mistakes. Like Ladybug becoming guardian, and defeating Mayura last summer."

Sibérienne nodded, "And that, my dear, is how Ladybug knows you're ready for another shot with the Bee Miraculous. None of us are going to get this right on the first try—and maybe not ever. What's important is that we learn from our mistakes and try again. Are you willing to try again?"

Chloe hesitated once more, "I really don't want to screw this up and hurt more people."

Sibérienne reached out to her softly and touched her shoulder, "You won't. I'll be right here to help you."

Chloe mustered up all her courage and gently took the hair comb. A fresh wave of crashing sounds was approaching as she nestled the golden teeth into her ponytail. Pollen, her beloved kwami, sparkled into view. The two smiled at each other knowingly, before Chloe cried, "Pollen, buzz on!" Once her suit had sparkled to life around her, she turned to Sibérienne and said, "Alright, team stripes, let's go get these utterly ridiculous akumas!"

* * *

"Chat Noir!" Ladybug screamed again into the darkness. "Chat Noir!" The village was still, just a huddle of buildings and frozen gardens. She'd lost track of the time, but she knew he had to be awake. "Chat Noir!"

"Ladybug?" an old woman called from down the road. Ladybug's heart leapt.

"Do you know where Chat Noir is?"

The woman looked at her and raised an eyebrow, "No-speak-French," she stuttered, but waved her over. Ladybug followed the woman into a small but inviting home. Immediately upon entering the covered porch she knew she'd found the right spot—Chat Noir's green shoes were set outside the front door. She heard a familiar deep voice groaning inside. The woman held the door open as Ladybug rushed in.

"Chat? Chat!" she cried. His blond hair and trembling hands shielded his face. "Hang on, don't look up, Here-" she pulled off his mask, still tied to her bicep, and tossed it to him.

His fingers slipped and he was turning toward her, uncaring about his identity or _anything_—she panicked. She whipped around to face the other direction and crunched her eyes shut. "Ladybug. I don't care. Look at me. I don't care anymore."

"Don't say that, Chat, please! I'm sorry I didn't listen to you; you were right all along! Kai's not going to help us, even though he has all the information we need to defeat Hawkmoth once and for all… I'm sorry, Chat. Please, I shouldn't have let you leave on your own. I should have stayed with you. Please don't quit on me now." Ladybug felt a small pull on her arm and looked down—Plagg was looking at her with wide, green eyes. "Ack!" she screamed, "Plagg, what are you doing out in front of a stranger? Hide!"

Plagg's little head wagged slowly, "She already knew. She knew everything."

"What are you talking about?"

Chat Noir sighed heavily behind her, "Ladybug, this is Mei Jian. She's Master Fu's great-niece and his last living relative. She's the one who unlocked a second Miracle Box."

Ladybug whipped sideways to come face-to-face with the wrinkled woman. She smiled softly. "You have a Miracle Box? What, where?"

The woman called Mei Jian glanced at Chat. Ladybug angled herself to keep him firmly out of view. Chat Noir spoke to Mei Jian in rapid Chinese. After a beat, Chat spoke in his mother tongue, "She will bring it out in a bit. She thinks your kwami might like to visit the other box."

Ladybug bit her lip, "I don't think I can do that. Chat, we don't even _know _this woman, and you're trusting her with your identity? It's not safe! I'd like to see the Miracle Box, but not like this—our identities are our most precious secret! Please!"

He sighed, then put his mask back on. Ladybug finally opened her eyes and looked into his vacant green stare. "I told you, she already knew."

"But _how?_" Plagg's face warned her again and he shook his little head. "No, don't tell me. I'm still wearing my Ladybug costume, but please don't look, ok?" He didn't respond. "Spots off." She frantically checked to make sure her homemade mask was still in place before turning to him. Tikki nuzzled against her cheek.

"You should let Kaalki out too," Tikki whispered to her. Marinette had nearly forgotten that she was still carrying the glasses in her pocket; she retrieved them and put them on. Kaalki burst forward and reared up on her hind legs.

"Thank you, Master!" she trilled.

Marinette smirked, "Please don't call me that. Especially after I leave you locked up all day in my pocket."

Kaalki did a backflip and went to join Plagg and Tikki, who were hugging and flying toward Mei Jian. The old woman spoke to Chat Noir for quite some time.

"She wants to know if you'd like some tea, or maybe a place to sleep."

"_Sleep? _Ha, as if I could sleep right now!"

"That's what I told her," his voice was defeated.

"Chat, please talk to me," she whispered. He slipped his hand in hers and led her to a couch and sat down next to her. "Just tell me how I can help. Please, Chat, I'm so worried about you—" The woman brought Ladybug a cup of tea. It smelled divine. "Is this chamomile?"

Chat translated; the woman responded with a "Yes." Marinette pressed the cup to her lips and the soothing liquid washed down her throat. She sighed in pleasure and relaxed a bit. After a few minutes of peace, Marinette felt much better.

"May I please see the Miracle Box?" The woman understood without Chat's translation and shuffled off to retrieve the Box. Chat Noir trembled beside Marinette, and she realized he was barely keeping himself together. She'd seen Chat angry. She'd seen him upset. She'd seen him cry and seen him break down. This quiet resignation, this complete defeat, this hopelessness? This was _bad. _She scanned his soul through his eyes, found his soft hair and broad shoulders, and pulled him in for a hug. He leaned into the touch and shook violently under her arms. "It's ok, Chat, it's ok." She pressed her thumbs into his temples and began rubbing small circles, in the way he'd taught her to ground herself during an anxiety attack. "Tell me five things you can feel," she whispered.

He couldn't talk, couldn't relax, he just kept shaking.

Mei Jian returned and quietly cleared her throat. Marinette kept stroking Chat's hair, and then looked up at the woman. She held a blue, shimmering, circular box in her hands.

"Miracle Box," she said tenderly, and set the box on the small dining table by the kitchen. Marinette released Chat and stood and walked toward the woman. The three kwami zipped forward simultaneously.

"Oh my!" Tikki piped, "I haven't seen this box in millennia!"

Plagg was rubbing his neck, much like Chat Noir did when he was flustered. "Yeah, I… uh… didn't think it survived." Kaalki pranced around the box, inspecting every nook and cranny.

Tikki thwacked his arm, "Of _course _it survived; you know that Miraculous are a lot tougher than you give them credit for."

Plagg whirled off and huffed. Marinette, confused at this exchange, turned to her tiny red kwami, "Tikki, what was that all about?"

Tikki twirled in the air, "This is the Miracle Box from Atlantis!" she squealed. "I haven't seen it since before the city fell. It must have been restored at the same time the rest of the temple was restored."

"Wow," Marinette breathed, "I always thought the story of Atlantis was a myth—"

Kaalki grinned, "The way you heard it probably _is _a myth. Atlantis was a great city filled with the magic of the Miraculous. For hundreds of years, it stood as a jeweled island in the sea. But then one of the Miraculous holders decided she wanted all the power of the Miraculous for herself and started using her powers for evil. It got so bad that the whole city was turning on each other. There was nothing pure or lovely or good left. Pl—I mean, we had to make a decision. The city had to be destroyed before the plague of evil could spread."

"I can hear you, you know," Plagg grumbled from the other side of the room.

"Plagg, if I've told you once, I've told you a million times, _you were not to blame._"

"Wasn't I?" he growled, flying at them with his little teeth bared. "It was _my _holder, after all, and I had to do it! Just like I _always _have to do it! Do you think I wanted to hurt them—any of them? Inkki, Clikk, Quill—" his little voice cracked, "they were all my friends too, and you all just expected me to destroy their homes without even asking me how I felt, and then let me deal with the aftermath all on my own."

"Plagg, you're not alone, we all understood, and we all agreed with you—" Tikki tried, but he snapped at her little paw.

"Just don't. Every day you fix things. You create and heal. I just destroy. You'd think I'd learn not to take matters into my own paws, but no, as if levelling Atlantis wasn't enough, I had to do it all again, here, on that _horrible _night…"

Kaalki shook her mane and whinnied in frustration, "You prevented Feast from destroying everything! I'm sure you remember as clearly as I do-Young Master Fu was panicking. He didn't know how to recall his amok, and he rightfully feared dual-wielding with Tikki to purify it either. Nooroo tried to pull Duusu out of her Miraculous, but there's only one of us that has the power do that…" her voice drifted off in concern.

"You can say it, Kaalki. It's not like they don't know what I'm capable of," Plagg murmured.

Tikki smiled at him softly, "You had to do it. You had no other choice."

He growled, "Didn't I? What was it you used to say to me? '_There's always another way, Plagg.' _We could have taken the earrings to a new wielder."

"Without the guardian's permission?" Kaalki scoffed, "Impossible!"

"Plagg," Tikki reminded him gently, "you know the powers of the guardian better than we do; you've been a guardian's kwami so many times… You know that Fu was the only one who could have truly stopped Feast, and you also know how lost he was at that time. Your timely cataclysm preserved all of them until Ladybug was able to restore the Temple—and here we are today, and it's back! Everything is there! You saw it with your own two eyes!"

Plagg turned away from them, "This box is too damaged to open, the curators are so angry that they won't let us see the other boxes, and now the best Chat Noir I've ever worked with is falling apart because of damage _I _caused… That's not happy news, Tikki."

Marinette had had quite enough of this. She cupped Plagg in her hands and lifted him to eye level. He squirmed but didn't fly away. "Plagg, you stop that this instant. Now, you listen here. I'm the guardian, and it's my opinion that matters. You are a valuable member of our team. There must always be balance in everything. Ladybug cannot exist without Chat Noir—you know that. Whatever you had to do was to save lives, and you know it. I'm sorry you've seen so much evil, but _you _are not evil. You are good, and always will be."

The tiny black cat sat down in Marinette's hands and wrapped his tail against his chest. "S-sorry," he murmured. Marinette stroked his ear with her pinky. He let out an unwitting purr, then turned away in shame. She smiled and stroked his ear again. His purr was longer and richer now.

"Plagg, would you like to visit your friends?" He shrugged his little shoulders. Marinette set him gently on the table before running a finger over the shimmering blue surface of the Box. It started glowing and humming softly.

Mei Jian spoke in excited Chinese. Chat translated from the couch, "She says that's what it did when she first touched it."

Marinette nodded, "It's recognized the Guardian. You say she's Master Fu's last living relative?"

"Yes," Chat responded, padding quietly behind Marinette.

Tikki's wide blue eyes looked up at Marinette eagerly, "I didn't know Master Fu had any relatives! I told you only a guardian can unlock a Miracle Box, but there's been a few times in history where a blood relative retains a few of the Guardian's powers. This must be one of them."

Marinette excitedly turned back to the Miracle Box. She ran her fingers around the edges. She found a small clasp and attempted to pry it open, but it was stuck. Marinette leaned in to inspect it—the clasp looked almost as if it had been burned shut. She recognized the black, dusty appearance—

"Yes," Plagg's voice groaned, "it's my handiwork."

"Now, now, Plagg," Tikki crooned, "we can fix it."

"_You _can fix it. All I can do is watch."

"That's not true," she patiently reminded him. "Ladybug, we kwami need to enter the box to assess the damage. I don't know how long it will take." Marinette nodded in understanding. Tikki's eyes wandered to Chat Noir, then she whizzed upward and whispered in Marinette's ear, "Don't worry about Plagg; I'll help him. But you do need to worry about Chat Noir. Listen to everything he has to say. The Miracle Box can wait, but he can't."

Kaalki and Tikki made quick eye contact, and Kaalki tossed her mane back importantly, "I'll keep watch here," she announced.

Marinette blinked uncertainly as Tikki hugged her cheek softly, then flew back to the box, held Plagg's paw, and phased through the shimmery blue exterior.

* * *

"Aaargh!" Longg growled, spouting flame from his mouth. "I'm going to throttle that horse!"

"What is it?" Kagami nervously asked, keeping an eye on her Akuma Alert App. Movement had picked up all over the city. She didn't know how long she could wait before transforming again.

"It's Kaalki," he sneered, "she always was _so _vain. Why, I would _never _dare speak to another kwami in distress with such conceit."

"What did she say, Longg?" Kagami huffed.

"She says that Tikki and Plagg are occupied, and that Ladybug and Chat Noir are 'not to be bothered,'" he intoned in a high-pitched mockery of Kaalki's voice. "Apparently they're doing something _important."_

"You told her, though? You told her it was desperate?"

"Of course. _I _always listen to my holders."

"Then that's all we can do." Kagami squared her shoulders. "Longg, bring the storm."

Hoping more than believing Longg's efforts to contact the other kwami had worked, Kagami opened the magical compartment in the hilt of her sword and placed as many hexagonal boxes inside as would fit, then used it to dial into the communication line.

"Ryuko, checking in, where's everyone at?" she queried.

"King Monkey—uh—fighting back—some crazy little howlers—at—the Louvre—" she could hear the grunts and moans of whatever he was battling punctuating his speech. "Sourinette! Over here—yeah—Nice! Guys, this Little Mouse is the bomb!"

Ryuko smiled in spite of herself.

"Who else?" she asked.

"This is Queen Bee!" Chloe's braggadocious voice shrilled, "and Sibérienne and I just cleaned up the Grand Palais. What's next?"

Courage swelled in Kagami's chest for the first time all day. Maybe they'd be alright after all. She checked her phone. "Looks like there's a pretty big swarm at the Trocadero Metro station."

"We'll meet you there," Sourinette's little voice responded.

Ryuko pulled herself up the drainpipe and started running, a little thrill lurching in her stomach every time she jumped from rooftop to rooftop. Below, a wake of destruction carpeted the path toward Trocadero. She reached the edge of the massive square, now totally deserted of human life after the akuma attacks earlier that day. A single monkey stood in the middle. To Ryuko's horror, he shuddered, and three more monkeys split off from the original. He was replicating, having grown so powerful that he didn't even need copies of the akuma to do so.

Sibérienne and Queen Bee arrived first and skidded to a halt on Ryuko's left flank. "There it is, the prime," she indicated.

"The what now?" Queen Bee barked, drawing the attention of the swarm of monkeys below them.

"The prime—the first one! We get him, we contain the akuma, he can't replicate further, of course!" Ryuko snapped at the blonde. "I was going to coordinate a sneak attack, but I _do _appreciate your timely arrival."

Roughly ten monkeys charged at them and the three superheroines started battling back the vicious creatures. Queen Bee scoffed, "Hey, don't blame _me_, I'm here helping you, aren't I?"

"You're just lucky that Sibérienne convinced me that we needed you on the team again, your majesty."

"Girls!" Sibérienne shouted, expertly using her bo staff to knock a monkey sailing, "This bickering will get us nowhere! Focus!"

Queen Bee's top spun out and knocked three black berets off in one swoop. Ryuko, not to be outdone by this little rich girl, employed some impressive martial arts to take down five monkeys in rapid succession. However, as quickly as they knocked them back, they replicated and returned. The three of them fought valiantly for several minutes with very little to show for it.

A whoop of elation drew their attention upward—King Monkey was doing a series of aerial summersaults onto the scene. Sourinette was with him, followed closely by another new superheroine. Ryuko smiled—her mother had donned the Rooster Miraculous and was moving elegantly. She had a long, dark green feathered tail and a white plume from the top of her head. Her forearms and shins were clad in pale leather guards with long hooked claws on the back of both. She looked equally beautiful and ferocious.

"Hey, mother hen, looking good!" Ryuko called while battling back another pair of monkeys.

"I do?" her blind mother responded, feeling the air with her hands and cocking an ear to the side, obviously attempting to sense the battle around her. Three monkeys charged her, and before Ryuko could even scream a warning, her mother twirled in place, tail flaring out stunningly behind her. She extended a glinting naginata, which flicked off the berets of the monkeys with ease.

"Wow, nice moves, Hennie!" King Monkey crowed from where he was battling a pair of monkeys himself.

"A little respect, young man?" the chicken-themed-heroine admonished, "You may call me Onagadori." She tossed her head back, drew in a massive breath, and let out a blistering crow that knocked off the berets of at least twenty monkeys closest to her.

Ryuko smiled proudly at her mother but refocused on the battle at hand. They seemed to be making a little momentum through the sea of blue monkeys, but the prime was still well out of reach, and still multiplying nearly as quickly as they could take out the minions.

"Help!" Queen Bee's urgent voice screamed just as a dozen fresh monkeys pounced on Ryuko and knocked her sword from her hand. The monkeys ripped at her choker as they tried to procure her Miraculous. She manage to knock back some of them, but they were swarming her, overwhelming her—she fell to her knees and wrapped her arms around her head to hold them off as long as she could—

"Hands off!" a rich alto voice rang out, then cried, "Camouflage!" Ryuko got half a glimpse of Sibérienne's black and white stripes blinking and shimmering, and then she disappeared. Almost as soon as she went invisible, the monkeys grasping at Ryuko's throat started flying off of her. Their confused expressions only lasted a moment before, one after another, they were ripped away by an unseen force. Ryuko clambered back to her feet just as Sibérienne shimmered back into visibility.

"Wow, thanks," Ryuko smiled up at Sibérienne, who was already moving to the next of monkeys and saving another hero.

Ryuko scanned around to take quick inventory of her team. Onagadori and King Monkey were working together phenomenally. Sourinette was proving herself incredibly effective, as she'd split into half a dozen miniatures of herself that were ripping hats off heads with ease. But still, despite their incredible efforts, the monkeys were replicating far too fast.

"We've got to get to the prime!" Ryuko hollered over the din. "Concentrate your efforts here," she pointed to the path she felt was weakest. Queen Bee, Sourinette, Sibérienne flanked her and they charged with weapons flashing. They made it forward about fifty meters but met a wall of monkeys that crashed down on them. Queen Bee screamed in frustration as the four struggled for every centimeter. Ryuko snuck a glance back at King Monkey and Onagadori—despite her mother's powerful sonic attacks, they were swamped as well. This was hopeless. Suddenly, getting the prime seemed pointless. Now she merely hoped to get out of here without relinquishing her Miraculous.

Ryuko took a nervous breath but had to put the protection of the Miraculouses above everything else. There was no other option, but to, "Everyone, Retre—"

A blast of light knocked back at least fifty monkeys and a thrill of hope spiraled through Ryuko's chest. Ladybug, Chat Noir were returning, she was saved—

It wasn't Ladybug and Chat Noir, it was, "Bunnyx!" King Monkey hollered from behind the front line assault team.

"I heard you might need a little help," Bunnyx laughed, stepping out of her burrow with three more familiar teenagers hot on her heels. "Although these two gangly things aren't much value just yet. Ryuko, got something that might help them out?"

Ryuko backflipped into place beside them, then popped open the hilt of her sword and extracted the snake bangle and the turtle bracelet.

"Sass, scales slither!"

"Wayzz, shell on!"

Kagami Tsurugi might not have been the most emotional person, but at this moment, she couldn't contain herself—she threw her arms around them and brought Viperion, Rena Rouge, and Carapace into a tight group hug.

"We missed you too, Ry," Viperion teased and mussed her hair.

Bunnyx was already making her presence known. She kept appearing out of nowhere to battle back the army of monkeys. Sibérienne continued to shimmer in and out of visibility, unleashing blow after blow against the onslaught. Ryuko released a breath before deciding it was finally time to use their extra powers. "Lightning dragon!" She called and felt electricity flash down her limbs. She wasn't just controlling it, she _was _it; she was in the sky, then she was darting down to the ground around the prime. The monkeys halted in a jolting paralysis. Their little hats popped off in a wave.

As Kagami found corporeality again, she heard "Venom!" and "Mirage!" being called from elsewhere in the team.

Carapace's "Shell-ter!" was enough to knock a final hole in the monkey's defenses.

"King Monkey! Stop the replication!" Ryuko screamed.

King Monkey flew faster than any of them. He shouted, "UPROAR!" mid-air and the squeaky toy soared like a dart, striking the prime in its chest.

It startled, looking down at where the squeaky toy lay innocently, then glared up at the superhero team. Suddenly, all the replicates fizzled and faded into nothingness.

"Get him!"

Ten powerful pairs of hands grabbed every bare piece of fur the monkey had. Ryuko grabbed the last beret and the prime akuma froze.

"Yes!" King Monkey shouted, and the team dissolved into laughter.

Maybe, just maybe, she could handle this guardian-for-a-weekend gig after all.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Marinette wrapped her arms around Chat Noir's shaking body and pulled him closer. "It's alright, Kitty, I'm here now," she tried tenderly, but it did no good. He was still quaking. "Please, talk to me."

"It's personal," he croaked.

Her heart split in two and her voice rose progressively as she spat, "You know what, I really don't care! We've been fighting side-by-side for over a year, we've been to hell and back together, we've come so far and yet I don't even know something as basic about you as your name or the fact that you speak fluent Chinese. It's ridiculous, and I am so, so done!"

He laughed bitterly, "Don't say that; we both know you don't mean it."

She bared her teeth and sobbed, "I _do _mean it. I'm sick of seeing you in pain. I'm sick of causing you pain."

His shoulder shook against her chest and she held him tighter. "You don't deserve this, Chat. You've been so brave—so much braver than anyone had a right to ask."

He moaned, "P-please s-stop, I can't do this right now. I can't hear you say these things, knowing your heart is with s-someone else."

"That's just it, Chat—I don't think my heart _is _with someone else; at least not anymore. It's been you for a long time now, I just couldn't see it."

"_What?" _he gasped, pulling back.

She looked at their entwined hands, "I… I love you, Chat Noir." He said nothing, but he stopped shaking for the first time since she'd found him here at Mei Jian's home, so she took that as a good sign. She kept her chin tilted down to avoid eye contact—mainly out of respect for him—but let her hand reach up to caress his cheek.

"For how long?

"I don't know… it's been gradual. That other boy was like lightning. This has been just the opposite, but even more real. It took me forever to find out all the amazing things you are, but as I have, I came to love you more and more… it's like… like coming home. You know?"

His voice cracked slightly, "Yeah, I know."

He pressed a palm to her cheek; she felt the cold steel of his ring against her jaw. Blue eyes met green—both fierce, both hurt, both determined. "I know there's someone else in your life now, and I respect that, but… I just needed you to know. I'm serious when I say you've been brave and that you don't deserve to be in pain. I want to help you. Please, please talk to me."

His thumb brushed her lips tenderly. "You remind me of her, you know? You always have. I even said so, once. Your smile. So much like hers."

"The… other girl?"

He chuckled mirthlessly, "No; my mother. You remind me of my mother."

"Oh—"

"I don't think I've ever told you about her. She was the only bright spot in my life before I got my Miraculous."

His choice of tense wasn't lost on her, "_Was?"_

He nodded. "Was. She disappeared a few months before we got our Miraculous. It's been about two years now without her." His voice grew darker, "I mourned for her. We… we have this statue of her at my home and I've gone out nearly every day and talked to her. I've told her everything. Of course, she never said anything back. But it helped. It's slowly gotten easier. Life hasn't been normal, of course, but then I met you and I became Chat Noir and, when I was saving Paris, I found myself." She squeezed his hand but stayed quiet despite her churning mind. "My _father—"_ the word held so much venom that Marinette shuddered, "—didn't handle her disappearance as well. Today I found out why. It was his fault. He hurt her—is _still _hurting her."

"_Chat!" _she gasped, that primal protective nature bubbling to life again.

"You know, it's kind of crazy. I thought he was protective of me because he loved me; now I'm realizing that he just didn't want anyone to find out the truth about our family—if you could even call it that. All those years of homeschooling, all the stupid extracurriculars that kept me so busy that I could never find time for friends—it was all a gilded cage meant to keep prying eyes out. I did everything he asked—I played all his twisted games. I learned to play the piano for him, I learned fencing for him… I _modeled _for him… I put on his ridiculous costumes and paraded myself on every street corner for him, and when he reached out even a tiny bit I went running! I swallowed his lies hook, line, and sinker! I am _such an idiot!"_

Marinette's heart was racing. It couldn't be. But it was. The word's tumbling from his lips tore through her like a knife. Her hand trembled as she ran her finger under the edge of his mask, "Adrien." His eyes blew wide as they looked at each other. Her heart swelled as she made the connection. "It's—it's you."

"H-How did you… How did you…"

A sudden screech from Mei Jian's kitchen shattered the moment. Marinette flew to her feet, and Chat Noir—_Adrien—_was close behind.

"Kaalki, you vain, selfish beast, how _could _you?" Tikki's tiny voice fired.

"Tikki! You're back!" Marinette sighed, but the little red kwami wasn't paying attention

Kaalki pranced to the top of the blue Miracle Box, "They had it perfectly under control; Longg always was an exaggerator, you know that—"

"You were supposed to be keeping watch! People have been getting hurt, are _still _being hurt!" Tikki charged at Kaalki in a most uncharacteristic way.

"Tikki! Calm down!" Marinette demanded, and she halted in her tracks. "What's going on?"

Tikki sneered at Kaalki and retorted, "Hawkmoth has unleashed an akuma, and apparently it got pretty bad. Longg said they weren't able to purify it, so it's multiplied and is tearing up Paris. And _someone _felt like this information wasn't _important _enough to share with the team. I was just barely out of the Miracle Box when I got hit by Longg's summons—he's been trying to get a hold of us for ages!"

Kaalki ruffled her mane, ready to spit another retort, when Plagg phased through the Miracle Box with his little teeth bared. "Are you all done here?"

Tikki spun on the spot, "The Box is fixed; we can start testing the Miraculous whenever you want. But I think we need to take care of Paris first, right?"

Plagg grinned and flew at Chat Noir—_Adrien; _Marinette's head spun again. But now wasn't the time to let all the implications of Chat's identity overwhelm her—she needed to think, to _act._

"Yeah!" Chat growled beside her, "Paris. Hawkmoth. Oh, I can't wait to sink my claws into him… I'm gonna cataclysm his face off," he sneered. "Claws out!" Plagg whizzed into his ring and the house was filled with green light. "Come on, LB, let's get him."

"Slow down there, Chat, let's think here—"

"Think? _Think? _He hurt her! She tried to help him and he betrayed her; he sapped the life right out of her! He's a monster, Ladybug, do you hear me? A _monster!_ I'm going to make him pay—oh, he's going to regret ever touching her—"

"Chat—Adrien. Wait. You're angry, you're upset." The wheels were turning in Marinette's head again. "Hawkmoth is a monster, but heading into battle with such a hot head—"

"Don't you get it?" he snarled at her, fists clenching and black sparks flying off them, "My mother sacrificed everything to save him, and _this _is how he repays her? By selfishly taking everything—her health, her vibrance, her love? No. He takes and he takes and I'm done playing nice. He deserves to die! My father has her somewhere, and he's trying to take our Miraculous to heal himself and gain ultimate power—he's a monster. _He deserves to die."_

Understanding dawned over Marinette and she felt the angry tears pour over the ridges of her mask. "Your father is Hawkmoth."

His face dropped to the floor and a single tear slid down his nose. She collected it with her finger, and a painful memory burst forward of her beloved Chat, dressed in glaring white, with a similar tear.

This was it. This was what had akumatized him. That terrible future she'd witnessed had been the result of this information. "Adrien, please, think about this carefully. I… I've seen where this anger leads, and if we go back to Paris now, I don't think I can stop it a second time."

He looked at her sharply, his green eyes narrowed to slits. "Explain?"

She took a piercing breath and moaned, "You'll be akumatized. I've seen it. There was this one time… the _worst _time… Bunnyx came and got me once and I had to de-akumatize you and it was the most horrifying thing I've ever had to do. She took me to the future and the world was almost destroyed. I couldn't figure out what could have happened, but I'm finally realizing that this is it. Adrien, I know you hate him right now—and I get it, I hate him too—but he's your parent and he still has a connection to your mother. If you go down this path of hate and anger, you'll never come back." She slid a hand to his jaw, "And Adrien, I love you too much to let you try."

He slipped a hand in her pigtail; she melted at his touch. Ok, so maybe _some _of the ramifications of his identity were not lost on her at this moment—her heart hammered in her chest at his nearness. It had been Adrien all along. Of _course _it was Adrien. The puzzle clicked perfectly in place—the one she had always loved, would always love, was right here, always in front of her, always by her side. She almost started kicking herself for turning him down but snapped out of it just in time. The cold metal of his ring brushed against her lower jaw and she leaned to her tiptoes. He closed the space between them. The heat of his breath washed down her nose. His other hand came forward and ran his fingers through her hair. Her eyes fluttered shut in anticipation of his lips—

His finger hooked around the side of Kaalki's glasses and whipped them off her face.

"I'm sorry," he whispered as he turned his back to her. "Plagg, Kaalki—"

She sprung to action and grabbed his right hand and muttered the incantation under her breath. Chat's body froze, then collapsed on Mei Jian's kitchen floor.

The old woman, who had been watching the interlude with quiet interest, looked down at his collapsed body. "It's only temporary," Marinette replied to her unasked question, "I only put his Kwami to sleep."

Mei Jian surveyed Chat, then looked up at Marinette once more with wide eyes, "Guardian," she acknowledged.

"Yes," Marinette responded. "And while he's not in his right mind right now, I'd die before I let him be akumatized—before I let that piece of human trash touch him again." She reached down and removed the glasses from Adrien's beautiful face, then placed them on her own nose. "Please, take care of him?"

How much of that Mei Jian had understood, Marinette neither knew nor cared. She nodded, and that was plenty of a confirmation for her.

The emotions she'd been forcing down started bubbling to the surface. She smiled—she would need them soon enough, and called, "Tikki, Kaalki, Unify." She turned back to Mei Jian once and nodded, then hollered, "Voyage!" The circle of light expanded, and she walked past Chat's snoring face and through the portal.

* * *

Ryuko's heart was near bursting with pride as she scanned her team. Sure, she needed Ladybug and Chat Noir to return soon, but she felt confident that things would be ok until then.

"Can you hold the akuma for a while?" she called to Sibérienne and Onagadori. The two women smiled and nodded in her direction. "Alright then, everyone huddle up," she commanded. The team, haggard but self-satisfied, crowded in the open square. "Who needs to recharge?" Carapace, Viperion, and King Monkey raised their hands and she nodded in acknowledgement. "Alright. Everyone who's ok for a bit, stay here to help keep the prime contained. But first," she smirked slightly, holding out her fist, "pound it?"

A collective chuckle arose from the team. They started leaning in, when Rena Rouge yelped in surprise. A circle of light rent the square, widening to reveal Ladybug dual wielding with the horse miraculous.

"Ladybug!" Viperion cried gratefully. "You got our message!"

Her face was stone cold as she charged at Ryuko and growled, "Where's the Miracle Box?"

"It's safe," Ryuko proudly announced.

"Give it to me." Ladybug swallowed hard, then turned to the members of the group and demanded, "All of you, give me your Miraculous, now."

Silence sent shivers down Ryuko's spine. "Why do you need our Miraculous?" Sourinette whimpered.

"I'm going to destroy Hawkmoth."

Rena Rouge walked slowly to her friend, "Ladybug, stop and think for a second—"

"No," the pitch in her voice was rising, "all I've been doing is _thinking._ It is time to end this, once and for all. This is between him and me; none of you need to be involved. I will not let him hurt another person I care about."

"Hey, LB," King Monkey crowed, "Where's Chat?"

She reeled on King Monkey with a murderous gaze, "He's safe, and that's where he's going to stay. Now, give me your Miraculous. Give me the Box. I'm going to _end _him."

A few of the teammates started fiddling with their jewelry in compliance, but Kagami felt a surge of adrenaline telling her that this was wrong, "No."

Ladybug flew at Ryuko, "Excuse me? I'm the Guardian here, you will do as I say!"

"No. You put me in charge of the Miracle Box while you were away, and while I'll never claim to be the Guardian and I still respect your authority, you're clearly not thinking straight. We're a team; we're here to help. Let us help!"

"Yeah!" King Monkey hollered as the rest of the team nodded enthusiastically.

Ladybug's lip curled back from her canines, "I _refuse _to let you put yourself in danger."

"And you think I'm going to let you put on… how many is that, seventeen Miraculous at a time? You'll _die!"_

"I will not; I've done it before." Ladybug's casual dismissal of the danger made Rena Rouge cry out in alarm.

"Ma-Ladybug, we're going to help you!" she announced. Ladybug shook her head in angry indignation.

"Uh, guys," Carapace warned, drawing the attention of the group to him. He was looking at the akuma still under the guard of the adults who didn't need to recharge. The akuma was swelling in size and strength. "I think… I think he might be sensing your anger. Hey, LB, try to calm down—"

"I will NOT! Hawkmoth has terrorized this city far too long and I will never let him touch Chat again, _never again._"

The akuma grew in size again, but seemed to be gasping for air, as if a battle for life itself was raging inside it.

"You know what, I don't need you. I don't need any of this. I don't need a Miraculous to finish him."

The glasses came off first, and Ladybug's suit shimmered back to its normal red and black spots. Then one earring—"Wait, Ladybug, STOP!"—and the second. The magic dissipated, leaving a very fragile young woman in a black tunic top and a homemade mask. The earrings made a soft tinkling sound as they hit the pavement at Ryuko's feet.

She turned to the writhing akuma and declared, "It's just you and me now, Gabriel. I'll never let you hurt him again." The akuma shuddered and collapsed as a massive black butterfly abandoned Adrien's bodyguard in exchange for this fantastic prize. Ladybug threw her arms open and welcomed the akuma. The team was frozen with horror as it pierced her mask; Ladybug was consumed in bubbling black energy.

Time seemed to slow down. Ryuko's mind was equal parts perfect clarity and consumed with terror. The new-formed akuma roared a hair-raising metallic screech; the sound brought her back to the present. She dove for Ladybug's discarded Miraculous while screaming at her team, "RUN!"


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Juleka Couffaine grabbed Manon Chamack's tiny hand tighter as the _Liberty _caught a swell of water and careened upward. Manon yelped and nestled against' Juleka's chest. "It's ok," Juleka crooned, even though within, she was a nervous wreck. Juleka wasn't particularly comfortable with children, and even less comfortable thrown into this strange situation, but now wasn't the time to show her discomfort. She may avoid situations like these for good reason, but when faced with them, she always managed to find courage.

She'd been down at the television station with Rose, arranging an interview for Kitty Section, when the akuma had hit. No big deal, she'd thought, this is Paris; it happens. As was standard practice, they all made for the safe room. Nadja Chamack had been called on to cover the news, and Manon—whose favorite babysitters were all apparently out of town—had been dropped off at the safe room as well.

But Ladybug and Chat Noir hadn't arrived to take down the first akuma, it escaped, and took over the town. The news station had been overrun by blue monkeys and the safe room was compromised. Juleka had reacted on instinct alone, grabbed the hands of everyone nearby her, and bolted for the closest familiar safe zone—her home on the _Liberty. _

Now, the Seine was acting up, Manon was crying, and Juleka was terrified. What was taking so long? This had been going on for hours! She checked her phone for updates, but after most of the news crew had been turned into blue monkeys, the feed had been cutoff. Akuma Alert simply showed the entirety of Paris flashing.

She looked around at the knot of people in the room—most were unfamiliar workers from the news station. Rose had managed to make it back with her. The two caught eyes and smiled at each other.

"I… I think," Juleka stammered, "I think I need to go check for updates. Rose, you know the boat. Do you think you could help calm everyone down? I think my mom has some hot chocolate in the galley."

"Of course," Rose squeaked.

"Manon," Juleka tried to hide her own fear under a mask of strength, "Rose is going to help you get some hot chocolate. I'm going to go check to see if the akumas are gone, ok?"

"Please don't leave me!" the little girl pled with her watery brown eyes.

Juleka dug deep and thought about what Luka might say or do. He always was the brave and smart one. A memory came back to her, from a night long ago when a huge storm had thrown the boat so violently that Juleka had been tossed from her bed. What was it he had done? What was it he had said? Oh yes—

Juleka got down on her knees and tenderly rubbed Manon's shoulders. "Manon, look, here's my muscles—" Juleka curled her arm but kept her muscle loose, just like Luka had, "look at those babies, aren't they something?"

Manon poked at the flappy bicep and Juleka swallowed hard against the lump that had just formed in her throat—remembering this same situation, but from the smaller child's perspective. The little girl giggled, "They're kinda wimpy."

"Hey, who's insulting my muscles?" Juleka laughed, "I'd like to see you do any better!" Manon puffed out her chest and hugged her shoulders with her fists. "Holy cow!" Juleka tossed her hair out of her face in surprise, "You really _are _strong, aren't you!" Manon smiled in pride. "I think you're probably the strongest one here!"

"That's right, I am," she declared.

"Do you think you could protect all these people while I run outside just for a bit, just to see what's going on?"

Rose, who had been listening quietly, jumped in and played along, "Yeah, Manon, we really need someone strong to take care of us." The others in the room nodded and smiled at the little girl.

"Well, ok, I guess I can be in charge," Manon smiled.

"Oh, I'm so glad you agreed to that," Juleka praised. "We're going to be safe in your hands, Captain Manon." She ruffled the little girl's hair and then slipped away with a quick nod to Rose. She waved once more to the others, then climbed to the deck and ran down the gangplank to the dock.

The sun was almost gone, but it seemed darker than usual. Maybe that was just her sense of foreboding. Buildings blocked most of her view, but Juleka raked in what she could. The streets were thankfully deserted, but that didn't help much for getting information.

She checked her phone once more. Nothing there. Frustrating, but unsurprising.

She dialed Max's number. He was usually quick to get an update. He answered almost immediately, "Juleka? Everything alright?"

"Yeah," she muttered, "Just wondering if you've had any updates on the akuma situation. I've got a full safe room here and haven't heard a thing in hours."

"Markov and I have been monitoring the team."

"Wait, the team? You mean they're all out there fighting?"

"You really _have _been cut off from updates, haven't you!"

"Where are they?" she demanded.

"I'm sorry, Juleka, but for their safety as well as yours, I can't divulge that."

"Ugh, you're the worst!"

"Terribly sorry, Juleka, but I have important work to do. Just stay in, stay safe, and this will be over soon enough."

"Don't you dare—" she warned, but he'd already hung up. Juleka growled under her breath and stowed the phone back in her pocket. She kicked a rock on the dock into the churning water. He was probably right. She should go back inside and wait it out, but she was determined not to face Manon or Rose or any of the rest without some kind of news to share.

A distant rumbling caught her attention. She craned her neck to see where it had originated but couldn't quite tell. Maybe the Eiffel tower? Or Trocadero? She hesitantly walked up the street for a minute, until a very familiar head of hair rounded the corner ahead and raced toward her.

"Luka!" she cried, her breath suddenly stinging her lungs in short gasps, "You're… You're here!"

"_Juleka?_ What are you doing out of the safe room?"

"You just left us!" she accused, "Just gone!"

He skidded to a halt beside her, then looked back over his shoulder nervously. "Listen, Jules, you need to hide. The boat's probably not safe, and it's too late to get it out of Paris—"

"Get it out of Paris? What are you talking about?"

"Where's mum? We need to get her and get out. Bunnyx will help us—I know how to contact her now. There's a safe house in South France; that's where I've been these last few weeks. It has supplies and everything we'll need."

"Luka, slow down," Juleka wailed as he grabbed her wrist and ran her up the dock toward the _Liberty_. "Mum's not here, she… she hasn't been home much since you disappeared."

"What?"

"She's probably…" Juleka didn't want to admit it, but knew she must, "… probably down at the pub."

"Oh no, she didn't fall off—" his voice trailed off as they both silently acknowledged their mother's addiction, but Luka shook his head and changed course, "No matter. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Right now, the only important thing is your safety." He raced back down the dock and started unlocking his bike that had been taunting Juleka for weeks. "Come on, hop on. Unless she's _completely _changed, she'll be at the—"

"Luka, the safe room is full of people. Rose, Manon Chamack, others—I brought them here earlier when the News Station was overrun by those blue monkeys."

He hesitated and looked back at her. "Dang, well, then… uh… we're going to have to…"

A squealing sound of crunching metal assaulted their ears from behind. Luka's eyes flew open, "Juleka! Get on! We've gotta go!"

She held on to Luka's shoulders as he stood on the pedals and pumped the bike forward with all his might. "Luka, what _was _that?"

"We just have to go!" he yelled, pedaling harder. "Sass, scales slither!" he cried as he whipped the bike around a corner and up an alleyway. Juleka yelped as magic enveloped her brother, and suddenly she was holding on to the cool, scaly material of Viperion's suit.

"Holy… You're Viperion!"

He laughed. "I thought you knew that? I thought _everyone _knew that!"

She gripped his shoulders tighter, "I only see what they put on the news or the Ladyblog, and it never said anything…"

"Well, surprise," he huffed. The magic must have given him super strength, because the bike was now flying over the streets and darting between buildings. He was obviously trying to outrun whatever had made that horrifying noise.

Juleka peeked out from her tangled curtain of hair and saw a purplish glow a few blocks behind them. "Luka, I think it's gaining on us."

"Second chance," he muttered, quickly sliding a charm on his bracelet backward. Juleka wasn't an expert on the Miraculous, and she knew Viperion—_Luka, _her brain reeled—had only participated in a few battles. She wasn't quite sure what his power even did.

"What was that for?" she queried, but he didn't answer.

"It's too late," he suddenly cried and Juleka was launched in the air as he abandoned the bike. "Don't go inside this time!" he screamed at her just as she hit the ground in front of the big glass doors at the ground level of Montparnasse Tower. "Take the bike and GO!" he howled.

She clamored back to the bike and was about to obey his direction, when that horrifying metallic shriek pulled her attention back. Luka pointedly ignored the impending akuma and ran into the building. Juleka could hear his screaming even through the heavy glass—"Get out! Evacuate the tower immediately!"

Guards jumped to action and Luka came barreling back outside as the metal shrieking sound echoed off the buildings once more.

"I knew you'd come for me first," Luka was growling.

The creature stepped out into the streetlight and Juleka gasped. It looked like… like _Ladybug. _But that couldn't be true—it just couldn't. The first few janitorial and security staff started running from the exit as Juleka wondered why Luka would have wasted precious time trying to evacuate Montparnasse Tower when Ladybug—she still didn't want to believe it—had been akumatized and he was _freaking Viperion._ Her vision was swimming, but she took a deep breath to steady herself. She couldn't go into shock, not right now.

Luka was fighting the akuma. Even amid the terror, Juleka had to appreciate her brother's impressive skills. She knew how much he worked out (even though he preferred not to talk about it) and it showed now; he held his own against the woman in black and purple spots. After a series of kicks and hits, he did a backflip and caught Juleka's eyes mid-arc. He landed hard, skid backward, and screamed, "I said get OUT OF HERE, JULES!"

The akuma's attention was drawn to her, and Juleka felt trapped. The night staff of Montparnasse tower was still running for their lives. "I'm not abandoning you here by yourself," she yelled back, and picked up a loose brick on the ground and hurled it at the akuma.

When she spoke, Juleka winced. Hearing Paris's hero from under that terrible akuma mask made Juleka's stomach sink to her feet, "Why would you bring _her?" _

Juleka felt her courage swell, "Hey, you attack one Couffaine, you get _all _of us." Not knowing what she was doing, but knowing that she had to do _something, _Juleka jumped on Luka's bike and flew towards Ladybug. She tucked her head under her shoulder and aimed a collision course, but just as she braced for impact, Ladybug whipped out what appeared to be a massive, u-shaped magnet. She pointed it at the bike, which crumpled underneath its rider. Juleka was thrown into the air and skidded across the asphalt. She stood and shook off the dust but cried in pain as she brushed her forearm and discovered an impressive road rash blossoming blood down her torn jacket.

"Go, just GO," Luka pleaded again.

"Hey! Pick on someone your own size!" a new, snobby voice echoed from an alleyway to the left. Ladybug spun and held out her magnet. Queen Bee and King Monkey had just arrived.

"You idiots," Luka sneered, "You should have listened to Ryuko!"

King Monkey laughed as he whipped out his jingu-bang, "And miss the chance to save your butt? Ha! Never!"

Luka grumbled under his breath, "They never listen. Not even _once." _

It was that, more than anything, that frightened Juleka into running up the street and watching the battle from a safer location.

Queen Bee was hardly helpful, Juleka bemoaned. Though, she did use her spinning top to help evacuate Montparnasse tower. King Monkey was bouncing all over the place and keeping Ladybug distracted. Finally, he yelled "Uproar!" and caught what looked like a rubber chicken and hurled it at Ladybug. It hit her square in the chest. She looked down at where it had hit her, then back at King Monkey, and laughed.

Juleka remembered reading on the Ladyblog that King Monkey's power was supposed to disrupt an akuma, but this didn't look like much of a disruption.

"Your power won't work on me; I'm the guardian, remember?" she trilled, and shivers ran down Juleka's spine.

As if to prove Ladybug's point, Queen Bee screamed "Venom!" and the top also bounced off Ladybug's chest.

"Run, everyone, RUN!" Luka screamed one last desperate time, just as Ladybug smiled and lifted her magnet. This time, they took his warning seriously and bolted down the road. The magnet started pulling. Luka was the closest—his arm raised up and the bangle at his wrist slipped free. The magic fell from his body as he ran to Juleka threw his shoulder into her back, placing his body between her and Ladybug. "Go! Go GO!" As she ran, she glanced backward to see King Monkey's circlet fly from his forehead and Queen Bee's hairclip take a chunk of hair with it as Kim and Chloe ran for dear life. The three Miraculous whizzed back to Ladybug and hit the magnet with explosive force. Its power ricocheted into the enormous building behind them.

"Go go go go!" Luka kept chanting. Juleka snapped her head forward, running, running for all her worth, as she felt the first few earthquakes under her feet indicate that Montparnasse Tower was no match for Ladybug's power.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

When Adrien was eleven years old, his appendix ruptured, and he'd required surgery. Now, he was quite sure he was back in that recovery room. It certainly felt the same.

He was dreaming. His mother's face swam in and out of view, then morphed into Ladybug's face, then back to his mother's, then to Marinette's, then back to Ladybug's. Someone was calling his name. Someone was touching his hand.

"Just five more minutes," he muttered, unable to get his eyes to open.

His mother's vibrant green eyes and pointed chin smiled at him. Marinette's silken hair tumbled over her shoulders. Ladybug's bright blue gaze pierced his soul.

_"Chat Noir, Chat Noir, can you hear me?" _

He groaned and tried to sit up—his head swam so violently that he crashed back to the floor below him. "Uuungh. Too. Tired. Must. Sleep."

_"I don't have time for this. Water dragon." _

A jet of freezing water drenched Adrien's face and hair. "Ho-What the?" he squealed, arching his back and leaping to his feet, claws out, teeth bared—the water retreated and Ryuko was standing beside him.

"Good morning, sunshine," she growled. "So glad you could join us today."

"Good-good _morning? _What's happening? Where's Ladybug?" he rubbed the back of his neck, memory of the last few hours and all the revelations they contained flooding back to him.

"Relax," Ryuko sighed, "it's not morning. At least, not yet. Ladybug is… It's complicated."

He rubbed some sense into his eyes and took in his surroundings, "Wait, what are you doing here? We're still in Tibet!"

"You've noticed that problem too, eh? Come on, Paris needs you."

"Would you _please _tell me what's happening?"

Ryuko pinched the bridge of her nose, exasperated, "Look. I don't know what you and Ladybug were doing here in the first place, but I hope you're finished because things are _bad _back at home. So if you could just… hurry up with the coming-to bit, that'd be great."

Adrien looked around and found Mei Jian standing in the kitchen with the shimmering blue Miracle Box under her arm. He remembered everything—his father's role as Hawkmoth, his mother's sacrifice, Ladybug calling his name—but the rage he'd felt had dissipated. Oh, he was certainly still angry, but the white-hot need for revenge had tamed to a place of clarity. He looked at Ryuko's face. Her mask was nestled over bloodshot eyes and a semi-permanent frown.

"Ok, I'm ready. But can you at least tell me what I'm up against? Contrary to popular belief, I hate racing into a fight without at least some strategy."

Ryuko sighed and her shoulders shook. "Longg, open sky," she muttered, and the magic faded to reveal a bruised and defeated Kagami Tsurugi.

"Kagami, what is it?"

She met his gaze with fear on her face. She took his paw in her hand, and when she released it, he saw two miniscule objects there—so small they blended into the color of his suit and he lifted them to look closer—two tiny, red circles with five black dots…

Ladybug's earrings.

"I… I tried to stop her, I did," Kagami muttered.

"I know," he replied, running his thumb over the Miraculous.

"But, Chat, I was thinking… you're the only one who can get through to her now. Just… just put them both on. Dual wield, you've done it before… you can find her and fix this!"

He shook his head silently. "I can't. I won't. I'm sorry Kagami, but it's too dangerous."

Her eyebrow peaked, "Dangerous?"

"The Cat and the Ladybug Miraculous are the most powerful of all, and they're meant to balance each other. When you dual-wield, the power you receive is more than just the sum of the two; and in the case of the Cat and the Ladybug, that power is more than anyone should ever have. You can actually control reality itself, rewriting it to your desire. It's called the Wish."

Her eyelids beat rapidly, "But that sounds like it's a good thing—"

"The Wish always comes at a terrible price. Balance must be maintained."

Kagami didn't seem convinced but nodded. "Well, still, you're the only one she might listen to right now. That is, assuming we're not too late."

He pocketed the earrings, determined to find her and give them back to her, before declaring, "Alright, let's go."

_ "Adrien?" _Mei Jian asked in quick Chinese, "_Come back and see me sometime, ok?"_

He smiled at her briefly and replied, _"Of course. Thank you, and protect that Box until we come back, alright?"_

The old woman hugged the Box tighter and nodded definitively.

"Uh, Chat Noir?" Kagami's broken voice queried, "What about the horse? I… don't think I have the strength to dual wield again today."

He looked at her, so worn, so lost, and gave her his most disarming smile. "Now _that _I can do." She handed him the glasses, he slipped them on, and in no time, they were back home.

No. They weren't home. They were in Paris, sure, but this was not right. The sun had set hours ago, but it was far too dark for that. Chat extended his baton so he flew to the top of the nearest building and started looking around. Sirens were blaring, emergency vehicles were flashing their lights. Montparnasse Tower had toppled and now was a heaping pile of debris, dust, and smoke. He drew in a pained breath—please, please let no one be in that building when it fell... But the damage didn't stop there—a trail of destruction, craters, and smoking rubble snaked its way around the city, ending—Adrien's heart skipped a beat—at the park that stood just behind his house.

His baton started vibrating in his hands; he flipped it open and found Carapace's terrified face, "Chat? Is that really you?"

"Dude, I could ask the same thing; where is she?"

Carapace looked around nervously, "I don't know. It's been horrible. She's already got Viperion and Queen Bee—maybe more. Their powers didn't work against her. Sourinette and the others were fighting her last I checked. Rena and I are going to try to corral her in the park."

"Ok man, just hang on," Chat nodded and hung up, then turned to Ryuko. "How long has this been going on?" But as her shoulders dropped and she ran a trembling hand over the horns that adorned her hair, he knew the answer. "And everyone's here?"

She nodded, "And then some."

Chat should have figured. If Queen Bee had joined the battle, it must be even worse than his vivid imagination was conjuring up. "Well, let's go," he started, pelting for the next rooftop. Ryuko hesitated, her body visibly anguished from the horrors of the day, but she followed.

The two of them arrived at the park mere moments later, but Chat held back briefly and peered over the edge of the rooftop. Rena Rouge and Carapace and another superhero he'd never seen before—a mature woman in a white suit adorned with black stripes—were poised at the entrance to the park. Under any other circumstance, Adrien might have shed his costume and raced to embrace his friends. But now, he could only scan the park in fear of what he might see.

A shrieking sound, like metal being shredded, assaulted his ears. All three superheroes raced into the park, at the foot of the fountain.

"Give me your miraculous and no one needs to get hurt!"

"Never!" Carapace screamed bravely. "Shell-ter!" The green energy wall flew up around the three. The shrieking sound grew even louder, and despite the energy wall protecting them, Rena Rouge seemed to be being drawn in, like a fish on a line.

"Cap!" she screamed. He reached for her and held on to her arms as she was pulled off her feet.

Adrien's gaze darted in the direction of Rena Rouge's assailant, and found her in the middle of the square, holding a hefty horseshoe-shaped magnet. She was dressed in black with purple spots. Her mask was glowing a faint purple, and even in the darkness of night, Adrien recognized her bright blue eyes. "Milady," he gasped, hurling himself over the edge of the building and toward her. No matter how complicated things may have gotten, no matter if she knew his identity and he would soon have to give up being Chat Noir forever because of it, no matter if his feelings were a chaotic knot in his chest—he was Ladybug's partner. He knew she'd sacrificed herself for him. That should be him down there, filled with Hawkmoth's power, under Hawkmoth's control. She'd come here and taken _his _akuma. Suddenly, Adrien understood what Tom Dupain was referring to when he called it 'true love.' She had given up her very freedom to spare him pain, and he yearned for nothing but to return the favor.

Only one thing mattered now: saving her.

"Ladybug!"

She hesitated. The magnet she was holding lost power and Rena Rouge dropped to the ground with a thud. "Ch-Chat Noir?" she whispered hoarsely. The purple mask glowed angrily. "I'm not Ladybug, I'm _Miraculender!_ Give me your miraculous and yield to Hawkmoth, as you knew you always would!"

Adrien held up his hands disarmingly as he padded toward her. "No, that's not _my _Lady talking, that's Hawkmoth. Milady? I know you're there. I know you can hear me. I'm sorry for what happened in Tibet. I… I love you too. No matter what. No matter who we end up with, I have always loved you, and I always will."

She dropped the magnet to her side and stepped toward him. "Chat?"

"That's right, I'll help you get rid of the akuma. You and me against the world, Milady."

He was almost to her. He reached out his hand. She looked torn, as if her willpower was almost enough to throw Hawkmoth's control.

"Mirage!" a shower of blinding white sparks fell in sheets around them, and Adrien was suddenly disoriented.

"No, Rena, stop!" he howled. He had been so close! She was listening to him! She had almost ousted Hawkmoth and Rena Rouge just _had _to butt in! Adrien felt a brush on his arm and startled when he saw nothing there, but then a white hand with a golden panjas bracelet appeared out of nowhere and grasped at the pulsing purple mask in front of him. Suddenly, the dizzying mirage dissipated, and the white tiger superheroine was wrestling Ladybug to the ground.

"Sibérienne, help!" Rena Rouge's voice wailed from behind them. Adrien spun to see Carapace behind them, bound and gagged, being held back by the strong arms of none other than Adrien's bodyguard. A woman had a fistful of Rena Rouge's hair and was pressing a thin knife to her throat.

"Let her go," the woman hissed, "or Foxie here gets it."

"_Nathalie?" _Chat Noir cried, recognizing the woman behind Rena Rouge.

He growled and lunged at her, but she was too quick. She dug the knife into Rena's skin at the soft part of her chin and blood oozed out. Rena screamed in pain and Adrien skidded to a halt. "That's right," Nathalie hissed, "no sudden moves."

"You… You're Mayura," Chat Noir growled as he suddenly saw the connections. His father was Hawkmoth, and, of course, he'd roped Nathalie into the business. Suddenly the awkward relationships made sense. Hawkmoth had cared for Mayura in such an odd way, but it now was clear. Nathalie's unexplained illnesses, the way Mayura had decided to train a replacement last summer and stopped using the Peacock miraculous herself—Adrien was having a hard time keeping up with reality. "It's you."

She laughed mirthlessly. "It took you until this moment, maskless, to figure out my identity? Wow. After last summer, I wasn't sure you'd ever get there." He hissed under his breath. "Now, drop your Miraculous and call off the tiger lady, and I'll let Foxie here go."

"You know he doesn't love you, right?" Adrien shouted, grasping at straws. He needed time to figure this out. Getting her talking was the only way to buy that time.

Her eyes widened slightly, but she was far too well trained to release Rena Rouge so easily.

"Hawkmoth—Gabriel. He doesn't love you. Never has."

"What do you know about it?"

"He's only trying to get the Miraculous to heal himself and end his dependency on his wife. I don't know what he told you or led you to believe, but he doesn't love you."

Nathalie bared her teeth and snarled, "I know. It doesn't matter."

"Doesn't it, though? He's using you, and once he gets what he wants, he's going to abandon you too."

She laughed, "Nice try, Chat Noir. Besides, I'll get my reward, whether he realizes his feelings for me or not."

"Oh really?" he bantered, "And what would that be?"

She pursed her lips and deflected the question, "Just drop your Miraculous."

Adrien's sensitive feline ears heard two voices whispering to each other behind him. He spoke a little louder to drown them out and keep Nathalie's attention firmly fixed on him. Whatever Sibérienne was planning was good with him. Maybe she'd figured out a way to get through to Ladybug? _Here's hoping…_ "He's using you!"

She shrugged. The motion made Rena Rouge wince. "You know, we don't really need your Miraculous anyway. Once we get his stupid brat kid on board, we'll be able to revive her and sever the link without the Wish. It'll just be so much faster and less messy this way."

"Wait, his kid? You mean… Adrien?"

She rolled her eyes, "Who else? Maybe you _are_ as stupid as you look."

"There's a way to revive my mo—Hawkmoth's wife without the Miraculous?"

She smiled crookedly, "Assuming his love for her is great enough, yes. Of course, it might be a little unfortunate of an ending for the boy, but all things considered—"

"Chat Noir," a warm, motherly voice caught him off guard—it was Sibérienne. He whipped around to face the second woman, who still had a hand firmly on Ladybug's mask.

"You say if I hand over my Miraculous, you'll let Rena Rouge go?" she called at Nathalie.

"Well, I was talking to Chat over here, really—"

"Ok, here it is. Let her go." And with that, Sibérienne let go of Ladybug's mask and slipped her Miraculous from her hand. The magic faded from her body as she threw the panjas bracelet at Nathalie, who released Rena Rouge just in time to catch it. She squealed in delight—but just then, the magnet picked up again and Rena's Miraculous was torn from her neck. Carapace's bracelet whizzed toward Ladybug, and the panjas bracelet escaped Nathalie's grasp. Adrien ran for dear life, shielding his ring with his chest as three more Miraculous were drawn in. As they connected with the magnet, a shockwave of energy exploded, picked up the carousel, and hurled it into the building behind them with a nauseating blast. Debris rained down on them. Adrien dove behind a tree. He felt horribly, terribly alone.

"Lightning Dragon!"

Adrien had forgotten that Ryuko was behind him—his heart leapt to his throat in optimism as a lightning bolt suddenly struck the ground between Ladybug and Nathalie, deafening everyone and splitting the tree he was hiding behind in two. He scrambled out of the way as Ryuko rematerialized and drew her sword toward Ladybug. Adrien watched as Nathalie's eyes darted between Ryuko, Ladybug, and himself. He was a fraction of a second too slow to react—she kicked the now necklace-less Alya into the square, dove into the sleek silver sedan behind them, and zoomed away. He thought, briefly, about chasing her down, but even as the image of catching Nathalie flashed across his mind, he dismissed it. The choice always would be Ladybug.

"Sibérienne, get Rena and Carapace to safety!" he ordered, and briefly acknowledged the magic-less woman, who looked like Sabine Cheng, cradle his two injured friends and usher them off to safety. Then, he raced toward Ryuko, extending his baton and spinning it to shield Ryuko from the magnet. "Ryuko! You've got to get out of here! Go back to Tibet, get Mei Jian, get anyone you can. I'll hold her off!"

He pulled the glasses from his pocket and tossed them to Ryuko—however, mid-arc, the magnet caught them with its invisible pull and they flew toward Ladybug. He felt like an idiot. Ryuko didn't even turn to him; she kept fighting with impressive strength.

"You're the only one that can get through to her," she shouted. "Try to talk her down again!"

"Ladybug," he pleaded, "this isn't you! You've got to stop this! Ladybug!"

Her blue eyes sparkled at him, but then the mask flashed bright purple again and she buckled in pain.

"No! Don't listen to him! He's trying to control you—don't let him! You're the strongest person I know; if anyone can throw off one of Hawkmoth's akumas, it's you!"

She started growling, and for a second that seemed like an eternity, Adrien was convinced she would win. But then, she seemed to lose control of her arms and the magnet flew up again, pointed directly at Ryuko's throat.

"Chat Noir, you've got to stop her!" Ryuko screamed as she held on to her choker with her last ounce of strength, but the magnet was just too strong. She let out a wail of loss as the strap broke against her skin and slipped away, zooming to the magnet with an explosive blast that demolished the fountain and a jet of water erupted from the ground. The magic dropped away and Kagami fell to her knees in despair.

Chat Noir watched his last ally lose her final protection, and the answer became clear. It was the only way.

Ladybug had risked everything, had willingly become this monster, just to spare him. There was only one option left. His stomach twisted in knots of fear; he swallowed hard to calm it. _There's only one power great enough to heal her. Healing her is the only thing that matters. _With laser-focus, Adrien retrieved the tiny black earrings from his pocket. He slipped them on his earlobes, took a deep breath, and cried, "Plagg, Tikki, Unify!"


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Adrien Agreste had used a Miraculous perhaps more times than anyone else, except maybe Ladybug. He had transformed hundreds of times. He'd dual wielded before and he'd borne the burden of the Ladybug Miraculous to boot. But this? This was more than any of that combined.

The magic pressed in on him—heavy, restricting, imploding—it nearly crushed him to death. He collapsed to the ground, and yet still it grew, billowing out in waves. His mind—his very sense of self—was slipping in a torrent of sound and light. Voices, flashing like a strobe light, swam through his head—perhaps previous miraculous holders, perhaps other kwami, perhaps echoes of other possible realities… all calling his name, all screaming at him, all whispering haunting warnings, tormenting him, teasing him… he lost touch with reality. He was simply a drop of energy floating in a river of raw power. He was so insignificant. It was physically painful to hold on to his humanity. It would be so much easier to let the magic take over. He could let it go—he could let it win. He yearned to yield to it, to let it carry him away to a blissful state of oblivion.

What was he even doing here? What was his purpose again? What even was his name? He tried to search his past for whatever had inspired him to take on this magic, and he struggled to produce any coherent thought.

_"Chat Noir," _something—someone said from beyond him. It was a quiet, musical sound that reached his physical ears and then bounced into his soul where the magic was about to overtake him. Wait—that was her voice! That was Ladybug's voice! Feeling a new surge of determination, he saw the lost boy within himself shake off the shackles of the magic and force his human eyes open. He refused to let the magic destroy him.

A strange sense of tranquility started in his shoulders, halfway between his ears and his hands, but radiated to his heart. He looked down and saw a new ying-yang symbol emblazoned on his chest, flashing red and green. An echoing voice—louder and more piercing than the rest—rang through his head. _"The Wish is yours to use—take it. Control destiny itself. Rewrite all of reality." _It tempted him. His mind flashed through every moment of pain and heartache he'd ever experienced. His mother's face was cemented squarely in his line of vision. _"Bring her back."_

"N-no!" he barked, clawing at the voice residing behind his temples. "There's a price, there's always a price to pay!"

_"Your mother's life is surely worth everything," _the voice tempted him back, the strobe light flashing angrily. It was drowning him. It would be so easy. Bringing her back was such a beautiful thing, surely the consequences would pale in comparison to a life with his mother in it. He could even go farther—he could undo everything Hawkmoth had ever done! He could rewrite reality to extract every pain he'd ever experienced!

_"Yes, do it! A life of complete paradise. It can be yours!" _

Adrien envisioned himself, perfectly content, his parents blissfully happy, his friends surrounding him, the love of his life by his side—

He could see her outline: a petite frame, bouncing pigtails, radiant smile, brilliant eyes, but he couldn't find her name. Marinette. Ladybug. Marinette. Ladybug.

_"It doesn't matter who she is. You can have whoever you want."_

But it did matter. It mattered tremendously. Adrien didn't want a trophy. He wanted love based on trust and experience, like Tom Dupain had told him about. He wanted true love, not just infatuation—and certainly not an infatuation based on some reality-altering magic. If he rewrote her love, it would be a hollow lie. He would forever know what he had done, and he didn't want that.

_"It's only a lie if you decide it's a lie. It can be real. It can all be yours."_

But even if he did choose, and he did rewrite his life to absolute perfection, there would still be a price to pay.

"_The price is nothing. It's likely you won't even notice it."_

If he brought his mother back, someone would lose their life—that's what Master Fu had taught Ladybug. A life for a life. So? Most likely that life would be someone he didn't even know. It would just be another blip in an otherwise perfect life.

A final, stronger voice—his own—powered over the top of the countless whispers fighting for territory in Adrien's brain. _"No," _he reasoned within, _"I cannot pay that price. Whether I know the person who takes my debt or not, it doesn't matter. They're still _someone_, and every soul is worth saving."_

_"But it can all be yours!" _the whispering ghost from the Miraculous shouted over his conscience. The image of his whole world, taken back to before he lost his mother, swam across his vision once more. It was so serene, so real, it nearly destroyed him. He saw himself, his family whole, his father loving, his world complete. One word, and it was all his. He raked in every detail of the picture—the way his mother's hair rippled over her shoulder, the look of pride in his father's eyes as they watched him play the piano, his joy as his fingers raced over the keys…

His empty right ring finger…

And suddenly, Adrien knew the price of the Wish.

"No," he responded to the tempting voice within, "reality is not meant to be rewritten. Our choices and our experiences are what build us into who we are. I've worked too hard on this life to give it up for an empty shell."

And with that firm command, the voice retreated, and Adrien's mind cleared. He felt the two powers balancing perfectly within him: creation and destruction, side-by-side, equal partners in this ultimate battle. He glanced down—the ying-yang had stopped flashing and now radiated red and green in harmony.

A new sensation started at his heart and enveloped him—not one of fear or confusion, not overwhelming, but of strength.

He found Ladybug. The purple mask glowing around her eyes couldn't hide the way her eyebrow arched, and the corners of her mouth pulled upward. He knew that look—but why?

"Now, it's time to give me your Miraculous," she demanded.

"Never," he countered.

Her knowing little smirk turned into an all-out laugh, "I wasn't talking to you, Chat," she stressed, running a finger over her mask.

Ladybug lifted the magnet and Adrien braced for impact, but she turned toward the street. The magnet emitted that hair-raising metallic screech, lifted her off her feet, and drew her toward the Agreste Mansion. Adrien raced after her. The outer security wall was shredded, the front doors ripped apart, and she touched down softly on the grey tile of his father's familiar atelier.

"Give it up, Hawkmoth!" she shouted into the echoing room. When nothing happened, she tilted the magnet at the floor, which started shaking and then crumbling in great chunks. Adrien pulled out his yo-yo and hooked it to a beam just as the tile underneath him disintegrated. He held on to the string for dear life as he fell into a black abyss.

His night vision was the only thing that clued him in to the rapidly approaching surface. He yanked on the string to slow his descent, and only barely managed to angle his approach so he landed on what seemed to be a long metal catwalk. He still hit so hard that white stars popped across his vision and all the air in his lungs was forced out in a single great whoosh. Coughing, he finally found his feet as the Miraculous he wore radiated their powerful energy back into him. He brushed the dust from his hair and eyes and looked around.

The catwalk he was standing on extended both to his right and his left. To his left, there appeared to be a garden, though the plants—loaded with white flowers—were unfamiliar. At the center of the garden was an ominous tube, or was it perhaps a display case? He couldn't tell from this distance. It was illuminated by a bright spotlight.

"Now it's just us three, as it always should have been," Ladybug's overpowered voice echoed from the opposite side. Adrien pushed back his cat-like instinct to explore and turned to his right to see a tower, at the top of which was a platform and a circular window. He marveled once again that he was underneath his own home—this had been here all that time? But he also knew the private courtyard off the side of his Father's atelier, the one that he was never allowed to enter…

Hawkmoth stood in the center of the platform above his tall, thin frame highlighted by the streetlight leaking in through the window. Both Ladybug's and his own costumes were glowing, casting disturbing colored shadows on the walls and floors. Hawkmoth stepped on a small, circular elevator that sunk through the platform floor and brought him smoothly to the catwalk below.

"Miraculender!" Hawkmoth growled, "I gave you your akuma; I gave you your power, now end him!"

She laughed, "You should have thought about things a little more carefully before sending your most powerful akuma ever to the Guardian of the Miraculous!"

His eyes popped, "How did you—"

"Oh, I've been in control since I took on your akuma. Of course, the extra strength from collecting the other Miraculous didn't hurt, but mainly it was about protecting _them _from _you." _She turned and winked at Adrien, "And saving all this for _you," _she whispered to him. "You deserve an even playing field."

Hawkmoth growled, "You _will _obey me." He lifted his cane and pointed the rounded end toward her. Her mask glowed neon purple and she bowed in pain. The light in the room faded; the spotlight over the garden display case dimmed when he fed energy into his akuma.

Adrien cocked his elbow back, clenched his fist, and raced forward. He hooked his fist upward and connected with Hawkmoth's jaw. The silver-hooded head snapped backward and was followed by the rest of his body—off his feet, up into the air at least a meter off the ground, and then fell like a rag doll to the platform with a deafening clang. But Adrien didn't wait. His foot gathered a bit of momentum and then kicked hard into Hawkmoth's ribs. Finally, he jumped, extended his elbow, aimed for his chest, and fell—

Hawkmoth twisted and rolled out of the way. Adrien hit the floor hard and wasn't able to scramble away before Hawkmoth's cane swung into his gut. He was lifted off the ground and flew into the back wall of the lair.

Something seemed to snap within Ladybug; she screamed, "Leave him alone!" and lifted the magnet at Hawkmoth. His body slammed into the ceiling, which shuddered at the contact. A new chunk of tile rained down from above. Adrien retrieved his familiar baton and spun it to deflect all the detritus. Ladybug lifted Hawkmoth twice, three times more and threw him to the far end of the catwalk. Adrien raced after them, skidding to a halt where the garden began. Ladybug and Hawkmoth began hand-to-hand combat and Adrien knew instinctively that she was trying to buy him some time, even if he was unsure why.

The metal tube was beeping an alarm. Feeling a disturbing sense of foreboding, Adrien looked around for something that might help. In the shadows to the left, he saw a second tube, but that one was open and empty. Wait, if the tubes opened, maybe he could see what was inside—he searched the edges of the tube and found a control panel hidden to the right. A display screen had numbers and jagged lines, one of which was the familiar zig-zag pattern of a heartrate monitor. He was no doctor, but he knew that much variation wasn't a good thing. Frantically searching the control panel, he found a lever marked "Open" and pushed it up, then spun to the front and felt his knees go weak.

There she was, perfect and quiet, as if she were sleeping. Her hands were clasped across her abdomen.

"Mother," he whispered, though his voice was drowned out by the din of Ladybug and Hawkmoth dueling behind him.

"Get away from there!" Hawkmoth screamed and batted Ladybug across the catwalk.

Adrien turned slowly and drew in breath to reach his full height. He was now eye-to-eye with his father, not that the latter knew that. In a dead voice he spoke, "Release them, Hawkmoth. Release them both, and I will see to it that you only spend the rest of your miserable life in prison."

Hawkmoth sneered. "You have no idea what you're messing with, boy. You see, I want to save her. She's my wife."

"I know who Emilie Graham de Vanily is, and I know why she's here. Let her go."

Hawkmoth winced at the use of her maiden name, "Her name is _Agreste, _and she belongs to _me._"

"No, Gabriel," Ladybug stuttered from behind him, gingerly returning to her feet and wiping blood from her jaw. "Nobody belongs to you. Not me, not her, not Adrien, nobody. Every akuma you've ever sent could only control people for so long, but they were never _yours. _Even Nathalie has abandoned you. You're completely and utterly alone. Surrender."

His grey eyes bounced between his strongest akuma and the boy wielding both the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous. He trembled in desperation. "NO!" he screamed at last, pointing his cane at Ladybug's mask and sending a purple jolt of energy to his last akuma. Her mask flashed blinding purple, while the light over Emilie's coffin dimmed and the monitors started wailing in alarm. "YOU WILL DO AS I SAY!"

The superpowered akuma seemed to overcome Ladybug; she collapsed and her skin paled. "Stop it! STOP!" Adrien screamed, knowing if Hawkmoth drew any more energy from his mother, it wouldn't just end her life eternally, it would overwhelm Ladybug's last bit of strength as well. Ladybug got back to her feet serenely, her face now blank and hollow. "Ladybug!" Adrien wailed, "Fight him! You've got to hang on! Ladybug!"

"It's not Ladybug, it's _Miraculender."_

Her arm came up slowly with the magnet clutched in her fist. There was only one thing left to do: "LUCKY CHARM!" Something heavy and wide fell in his hands. He closed his eyes and held it up just as the overwhelming pull of the magnet started drawing him in. However, the power of the lucky charm was stronger than the magnet—the two powers ricocheted off each other in a mighty explosion of force. He looked just in time to see Ladybug knocked backwards and her magnet's force being pushed down into the catwalk, which peeled apart in great curls of metal. With the catwalk now destroyed, Adrien looked down into the space below—it was a green pool that looked quite unnatural. Adrien wasn't eager to discover why.

Hawkmoth screamed in fury, "I said, _take his Miraculous, _you pathetic—"

The magnet's power started screeching again and Adrien hooked his lucky charm—a tall, heavy shield, in front of him. Again, the repellent force pushed Ladybug and Hawkmoth back and this time destabilized the wall where, high above, the oculus window peered out through the courtyard. There was a great shaking and groaning sound. "Hawkmoth—stop this now! The whole mansion's going to collapse!"

"Just give up and I'll rewrite reality to undo all this! You'll be back to normal, don't you see?"

"No, Hawkmoth, it's _you _who doesn't see. There's always a price. I can hear them—I can hear the Miraculous even now. I have the power. But it's not worth it. I'd have to give up everything I've learned and become, give up everyone I love—it's not worth it!"

"Speak for yourself. I have nothing left to lose." Hawkmoth growled.

"Don't you?" Adrien pled from behind his red and black mask, "You still have your son. You still have your wife. It's never too late to make the right choice."

Hawkmoth sneered, "I deserve so much more than this tethered, frail life, which is little more than slavery. I deserve power and glory!" He lifted his cane toward Ladybug once more, whose mask burned even more brilliantly. She writhed in agony. The walls of the chamber groaned. The light above Adrien flashed threateningly as Hawkmoth drew even more energy from his mother, and the monitors started wailing the flatline alarm.

Ladybug collapsed to the floor, contorting unnaturally as the pain of Hawkmoth's governance threatened to destroy her. "NO! STOP!" Adrien bellowed, as he frantically looked around for a way to finish this. He tossed the yo-yo above him; it grabbed a beam, but when he pulled to swing, the beam crumbled and brought down another barrage of ceiling debris. He backed up to take a running leap.

"N-n-no, H-Hawk-m-m-oth," Ladybug croaked, "Y-y-ou cannot control me." With every word, she threw back his power and regained her own strength. "I-I am the G-Guardian of the Miraculous. I am _Ladybug._" The mask erupted in streams of purple electricity as Hawkmoth threw every last bit of strength he had into it.

But she was stronger. She stood. Her left hand clutched the magnet. It was lifting, controlled by the akuma, pointing towards Adrien. Her right hand was her own, it reached for Hawkmoth's butterfly brooch. "N-Nooroo, I order you, as the Guardian, to bring me your M-Miraculous—"

The magnet fired a blast of purple electricity toward Adrien, and he realized this was his last chance. He let it grab him. He was hurtling toward her, both of them wrapped in a ball of lightning. "CATACLYSM!"

The brooch tore away from Hawkmoth's chest. The magic dropped, Gabriel Agreste stumbled, the magnet's power gave one final pull, and at the last second, Adrien brought the shield up to prevent his collision with it. He ricocheted sideways, angled his landing with his right hand out, reached, and grabbed the red striped ascot below his father's throat.

Gabriel looked down in horror. The fabric crumbled as steel eyes met green. A tiny gold butterfly wriggled free.

"H-How did you know?"

Adrien watched his father's face drain of color. His cheeks sunk in and his fingers—suddenly skeletal—clawed at him.

"You know," Adrien spoke as his father's body started cracking without the support of his mother's golden akuma, "the crazy thing is, I would have helped you."

"Liar," Gabriel wheezed.

"Honestly, I would have. If you had asked, if you had been honest, I would have helped you. I would have given you my miraculous in a heartbeat. If you had told me you could have saved her, I would have done it—no coercion, no violence, no manipulation needed."

Gabriel started thrashing in pain, barely holding on to life, "Wh-why?"

"Because I would do anything to save my mother," he whispered gently.

The last look that ever crossed Gabriel Agreste's face was one of pure shock and horror, "Adrien?" Then, his breath spluttered as his lungs failed to draw one more breath, the shivering tremors ceased, and his pupils blew wide as whatever fragmented soul that might have still dwelled in Gabriel's shell evacuated.

Adrien forcibly peeled his eyes away from his father and turned to the golden butterfly that was hovering right where it had escaped the ascot, not trying to flee, simply waiting. "Alright, little butterfly, time to rest." He took out the yo-yo and captured it. The mansion started shaking more intensely.

"Adrien! It's collapsing!" Ladybug cried. He turned to her in alarm. She was holding Nooroo in her hand. Her akumatization had dropped when she'd retrieved Nooroo, and now, she looked as worn and frail as the tiny kwami. Her handmade mask was tattered and barely covered her cheekbones. He whipped out his baton, grabbed Ladybug's hand, and vaulted her over the widening chasm as the oculus window collapsed above them. Glass rained down, splashing in the green water and echoing ominously off the walls.

"Help me!" he pleaded with Ladybug, as he scooped up his mother's limp body from its coffin.

Ladybug picked up the forgotten shield and pressed it to Adrien's hand. Of course! He tossed it and shouted, "Miraculous Ladybug!"

The sparkling creatures seemed to take an exceptionally long time. They danced around himself, around the mansion, out the window to the city, and back, before finally spinning around his mother's body. Still, she didn't stir. "Tikki, Plagg, divide. Spots off." With his free hand, he removed the extraordinarily heavy earrings, and let his far-more-comfortable Chat Noir suit remain.

His mother still didn't move. "Ladybug," he pled, "please—"

She took the earrings from his hand and whispered her transformation words. One red gloved hand comforted the small of his back, the second gently touched his mother's wrist. Adrien pulled her face closer to his chest. "I never got to tell you this before you left all those years ago," he whispered into his mother's blonde hair, "But I love you. And if this is the last moment I ever get with you, I want to tell you again. I love you. I love you, mom. I love you, I love you, I love you."

"Adrien," Ladybug whispered, "there's a pulse! We've got to get her somewhere safer."

He saw an elevator shaft the Miraculous Ladybugs had repaired and carried his mother there. Ladybug was right behind him. When they arrived at the level above, Adrien felt nauseous—the mansion now stood quiet and pristine, just as it always had. The black and white butterfly print tile of his father's atelier suddenly was nothing but a vicious reminder of Hawkmoth's reign of terror.

"Adrien—he's gone," Ladybug whispered, as if she could hear his thoughts. He nodded, pulled a brave face, and marched out of the front door.

He flinched when his eyes were assaulted by glaring, flashing lights of hundreds of emergency vehicles. They turned slowly to see a line of police cars and ambulances, punctuated by an audience of friendly faces—Nino and Alya holding each other for support; Luka, Juleka, both worse for wear, but upright; Kagami with her mother and Sabine Cheng, all with tears streaming down their cheeks; Chloe, Kim, Max, and Myléne huddled together.

Alya took a few tentative steps toward the three, "Is it… is it over? Where's Hawkmoth?"

"It's over," Adrien pulled on his best Chat Noir swagger, trying to mask the pain, "Hawkmoth is—" his voice broke.

"He's dead," Ladybug whispered, stepping forward to take this last, most painful, hit for him.

With those simple words, the street erupted in exuberant applause. Adrien didn't know how to feel about that. Part of him was ecstatic and nearly whooped and hollered with the crowd, but the part of him who had just lost the only father he'd ever known, felt cold and empty.

Adrien quietly walked to an ambulance and laid his mother on a stretcher. The crowd parted for him.

"Is this _Emilie Agreste?" _Officer Raincomprix muttered behind him.

All Adrien could do was nod. Ladybug started explaining everything to the first responders in a rapid whisper. Adrien tuned them out and stroked his mother's cheek, trying hard not to hope for fear of losing her again.

"I'm terribly sorry, Chat Noir, but may I?" He moved upward toward his mother's face, allowing the doctor ample space to check her over.

There was a flurry of activity, though Adrien was hardly aware of any of it. He just stood there, numb to the world, looking at his mother's pale face. He reached in and pressed his lips to her forehead. Suddenly, her eyes were fluttered, her lips started trembling, the color in her cheeks was returning, and she coughed weakly. Adrien gripped her hand and she squeezed it softly. "Oh!"

"Madame Agreste! Can you hear us?" The first responders crowded around on bated breath.

She blinked once, twice, and then squinted her brilliant green eyes against the flashing lights of the emergency vehicles.

"Wh…what…" her voice was froggy after years of lack of use.

"Madame Agreste! You're alright!"

"Where am I? What… what happened?"

"It's a long story," Ladybug's tender voice whispered from behind her. "We'll fill you in later. All you need to know is you're safe, you're home in Paris, and nobody can hurt you anymore."

Her eyes were still blinking into focus, "P-Paris? Wait, what day is it?" She managed to make eye contact with Chat Noir. The doctor told her, only to be corrected by another nurse who noted it was now well past midnight. She smiled softly and looked into his eyes, "Oh, it's my son's birthday." And with that, her eyes fluttered closed again as she slipped back into her pillow.

"No, wait!" Adrien cried.

"It's alright, she's ok. She's just unconscious. She's weak, but stablilizing. We're going to take her to the hospital, ok?"

He nodded numbly and let them load her stretcher on the ambulance. A parade of emergency vehicles followed them, and Adrien stood there like a statue.

"Chat Noir," a quiet voice spoke behind him, "Chat, come with me." Even though he was too hollow to identify the voice, he knew it was one he trusted, and when the little hand slipped into his, he let it lead him. And then he was flying, he was soaring somehow, and then he was on solid ground again, and he shook his head and looked around and he was on a familiar, favorite rooftop.

He looked down to see neon green shoes. Apparently, his transformation had dropped, perhaps mid-flight, and he hadn't even noticed. Just one more thing that she'd taken care of, one more hit she'd taken for him. "L-Ladybug," he muttered.

"I'm here, Adrien, right behind you, right where I've always been. It's just you and me."

"You and me. Against the world?"

"That's right," she replied. "I thought you might need some space and some… some quiet for a while."

He turned around. Ladybug was sitting there, quiet and serene, his anchor and his friend. Her beautiful bluebell eyes danced at him.

He knew. It was her. There was no one else it ever could have been. In that moment, his whole world healed. Feeling returned to his limbs and his heart started racing. "Marinette."

She tenderly walked toward him and reached hesitantly. He took one great step and wrapped her in his arms. He inhaled and wondered when the last time he properly breathed was. She held him, no demands, no pressure, until he was at last stable. Then, she lifted her chin and gazed into his brilliant green gaze.

There they stood, Adrien and Marinette, Ladybug and Chat Noir, no more secrets.

"A-A-Adrien," she stuttered, "There's something I tell to need you. I mean, no, wait…"

He laughed. "Marinette, I love you."

She nodded, "Yeah, that's the one."

Adrien pulled her in, she lifted herself up on her tiptoes, and their lips collided in a twirling kiss that neither of them broke for a very, very long time.

* * *

_**Author's note: **__Phew! That was a crazy fun ride! Don't worry, we're not quite finished yet. _


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Marinette placed the red-and-black spotted Miracle box in her backpack, then called on her transformation. Today was one day she was grateful to have a mask over her eyes. She slipped out the skylight of her bedroom, listened carefully for any passersby, crawled behind the chimney and—

"Chat! What are you doing up here?"

He stood and stretched his back, "I thought you might like a little support."

"Oh," she started, "y-yeah, I guess I would."

"Look," he smiled, removing his own messenger bag and showing its contents, "Your parents love me."

She laughed in spite of herself, "That they do. What'd they give you this time—macarons?"

"The favorite flavors of the whole team. It'll be a nice gift. I figured you couldn't bring them; it might be a giveaway. But if I brought them…"

She nodded away the tears, "That was really thoughtful, Adrien."

"Hey," he crooned, cupping her cheek in his hand, "it's going to be ok. They'll understand, I promise."

"I know; that's the problem. Sometimes being the guardian just sucks."

He leaned forward and kissed her nose softly. "It does. That's why you have a partner."

"Still," she countered, "you've got enough to deal with right now, you shouldn't have to shoulder my burdens as well."

"Don't do that, Marinette, seriously."

"Do what?"

"Carry everything alone. You've been there for me even when I didn't know it was you. Let me be here for you too."

She nodded slowly, "You're right. But truly—how are you?"

He smirked, "As well as can be expected, for having to deal with everthing at the business, a mother still in the hospital, and dealing with the aftermath of having one's own father be a magical terrorist…"

"Interesting, is that _all _you have going on?" she teased. He snuggled against her shoulder.

"I do have something amazing going for me, though," he whispered, "I've got an incredible girlfriend and her parents make amazing macarons."

She laughed and took the time to wrap her arms around him. "You don't need to carry everything alone either."

"I know," he crooned back as she ran her fingers through his hair and kissed him softly. "I'm beginning to realize why the Black Cat and the Ladybug are a pair. It's not because their powers compliment each other, it's because the weight of bearing either one alone is too heavy to ever do alone."

She nodded, hugged him in gratitude, and then the two vaulted across the street to the school courtyard. They were the first to arrive by design, but the others weren't far behind. Kim, Chloe, Max and Mylene all arrived separately but within seconds of each other. Alya and Nino showed up hand-in hand. Luka quietly made his way to the back of the crowd, sharing a long look with Ladybug. Kagami came last and took a seat beside Luka.

"Ok, now that we're all here, I…" Ladybug tried to say, but her voice caught in her throat, "I… just wanted to thank you all…" she couldn't breathe.

Chat Noir placed a hand on her shoulder and took over, "Ladybug and I have been talking a lot recently. With Hawkmoth gone but with Mayura on the run and no clue of her whereabouts, we feel—"

Ladybug regained her composure and took over, "I made the decision, Chat, and it's on me."

Luka quietly stated, "It's time to say goodbye to our Miraculous, huh."

Kagami added, "We all figured as much."

Max chimed in, "The Miraculous will be one-hundred-percent safer in the Miracle Box."

Ladybug swallowed and nodded, "Yes, that's how it must be. But I thought you all might like one last chance to—to say goodbye."

She took off her backpack and pulled out the Miracle Box. Kim's face lit up like a Christmas Tree. The others were all smiling. "Oh sweet! I've always wanted to try—"

"Hang on," Kagami interrupted, "we're not supposed to use our Miraculous for personal reasons."

Ladybug ran her fingers over the box, then gave everyone a cryptic wink, "I've been thinking a lot about the term 'personal.' What even is that? All along, I've been so careful about not using my power for anything other than fighting Hawkmoth. I kept my family and loved ones at arm's length to keep them safe, but I ended up alone and in pain."

"Does that mean you're going to tell us your identity?" Chloe chirped hopefully.

Ladybug smiled and shook her head, "No, that's a secret that's already gotten too far out of control—" she sent a meaningful look to Chat Noir, Luka, and Alya, "and while I trust you all implicitly, the future is just too uncertain for me to share that information just yet. But I don't want you guys to make the same mistakes I have. Don't forget to keep living. Tell the people you love how much you care. Have fun every day. The Miraculous is about inspiring hope and saving others—you certainly don't need a supervillain to do that!" then added, "I'll give you three hours and permission to enjoy your Miraculous for a while, then meet back here. Have fun!"

The team whooped in delight. Ladybug opened the box for each member to retrieve their jewelry. The courtyard flashed a variety of colors as everyone called on their transformations, and then it grew quiet as the group dissipated to their various adventures. Ladybug looked over her nearly empty box as black gloved hands traced her shoulder blades.

"That was a great speech and all," Chat whispered in her ear, "but I totally disagree. You didn't forget to live. And we certainly had a lot of fun."

She set the box down and turned to Chat, nodding noncommittally, "But I pushed you away. I almost lost you."

He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek, "You _never _almost lost me." She leaned up on her tiptoes and kissed his lips. He caressed her hair softly, then a wicked little smile quirked the edge of his mouth, "Hey, the Guardian just said we had three hours to do whatever we want with our Miraculous, and I do _not _intend to waste them!" He wagged his eyebrows at her, then extended his staff and lifted himself up and over the roof.

"Chat, I did NOT say anything you wanted—CHAT!"

* * *

_**Author's note: **This story is almost done! I had too many loose ends to wrap up, and too many disparate elements to do it all in one chapter, so this is the first of three short chapters that comprise the epilogue._


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Emilie hesitated. She still didn't want to go. "You know," her therapist whispered beside her, "you don't have to do this. We can wait."

She shook her head tersely, "No, I need to do this. It's been over two months already. If I wait any longer, I'll never go, and I need closure." She afforded herself one brief pause before squaring her shoulders and pushing the doors open.

The enormous mansion smelled stale. She frowned as she looked around. This had been her childhood home, after all—to see it cold and dead like this was painful.

"Might as well get the worst over with," she muttered and marched straight for the atelier, her therapist by her side. Of course, it had been totally stripped of all of Gabriel's belongings mere hours after the battle had ended. The evidence they'd discovered on Gabriel's computers had been critical in securing his business holdings and all the ensuing court drama. However, even without the computers here, Emilie shuddered at Gabriel's lingering presence. Not wanting to prolong this uncomfortable journey longer than she had to, she strode to her portrait on the wall and pressed the code in. The floor opened up and an elevator platform carried her down.

"Emilie? Talk to me. Tell me what you're feeling."

"I know this place," she responded. "When I was young, maybe fourteen or so, I had been in the courtyard with Amelie. She found an old coal chute behind some bushes, and fell in. The whole fire brigade came out, my father was terrified… When they got her out, she told me what was down here."

"What was it they found?"

"An old hideaway used by the French Resistance. Of course, that put the Mansion on the historical monuments list pretty fast, and there were a couple years with lots of construction to try to preserve it. Until…"

"Until when?"

"Until Father got ill and Graham Studios was forced to close."

"That was around the same time you married Gabriel, right?"

Emilie nodded. "Exact same time. His offer was to save the company and the mansion. Amelie was too… fragile to see the value in his offer, so I took it instead."

Her therapist nodded. "Fragile?"

"Or wise; either way, I ended up at the altar, not her."

The elevator slowed down and Emilie sighed. "It was Athan who found her down here."

"Athan… Athanasius? Tell me about him."

She swallowed hard and bit back tears that prickled the backs of her eyes, "It was a silly schoolgirl crush."

"No it wasn't. He was important to you. It helps to talk about it, Emilie. Don't hold back."

"Amelie used to tease me about it. She didn't think he was good looking, and as the son of the gardener, he hardly had prospects, but he was kind and sweet. He was brave and strong. That day Amah fell down the coal chute was the first I met him. He came here, he slid right down the chute after her, sent her back up the rope first, and then climbed out himself. When my father offered him a massive reward, he dismissed it nonchalantly. He didn't care about money—he just came to help. He was the only person I ever knew who never tried to use us for our fortune or our name."

"Did he know how you felt?" Emilie nodded quietly in response. "And? Did he feel the same way?" She nodded again. "Where is he now?"

Emilie bit her lip as the tears she'd been just barely managing to contain burst past her eyelids, "He died in a tragic accident about a month before I married Gabriel." Emilie _knew_ this wasn't true, but it was what the police records indicated, and she never did have the evidence she needed to confirm her suspicions.

Her therapist surveyed her for some time before deciding it was time to move forward, up the catwalk and toward the abandoned metal cocoon that had been her residence for two years.

"Emilie," the therapist soothed, "remember what we said about living with regrets? You did what you felt was best at the time. Don't regret it."

She nodded stoically and stepped on the clanking catwalk. The water below was quiet and green as the wall sconces flared to life. Her footsteps echoed as she made her way toward the empty coffin-like device. The plants around it were all dead now, just brown skeletal remains. That pang of regret stabbed at her again, but she shook her head. "No regrets," she chanted out loud. Nothing, not even the death of these magic-fueled bushes, were her fault. She looked into the metal cocoon and shivers ran up her spine.

"You know what's strange?" she muttered to her therapist, "I have no memories of being inside this thing. I remember being in Tibet, I remember him using the peacock and him nearly dying. I remember Mei Jian telling me about misusing Miraculous and how magical wounds couldn't be healed, but I had to do _something. _I wanted to save him so badly. I remember the golden butterfly leaving me and going to him, and it not being enough. I remember Mei telling me to stop but he was still slipping away, so I fed the butterfly more and more energy until I saw his eyes open."

"What happened then?" the therapist prompted.

"He looked at me. He didn't smile. Gabriel never really smiled. And then everything went black. I don't even remember dreaming. The next thing I recall was waking up on the stretcher outside the mansion."

"How does that make you feel?"

Emilie fingered the cocoon. "I don't know. Robbed, I guess. Two whole years of life and I can relive it all in a sentence. I missed everything—I missed Adrien's birthdays, I missed his first crush, I missed him growing up and I'll never get it back."

The therapist nodded and smiled softly, "That's valid. Adrien doesn't blame you, though, you know—"

"Well he should!" she burst, suddenly feeling white-hot-anger, "I saved Gabriel's life! I could have let him go, back there in Tibet! I could have spared everyone _everything._"

"Emilie—"

"I know I know, no regrets…" Emilie was about to add more, but a flash of light caught her eye. She turned to the shadow and walked forward to investigate.

"Emilie, wait, stop—" the therapist panicked, but it was too late. Emilie found the second cocoon, hiding inconspicuously back here. It was a little smaller than the one she'd been in, but was now as empty as hers. The monitors on the side were still on. She looked closer and punched a few buttons. It started beeping in alarm, and the primary screen started running a written warning, _"Patient has been disconnected. Reconnect immediately."_

Emilie read the marquee a couple times before startling in surprised understanding. "Someone else was here," she whispered, "someone else he locked up."

The therapist grabbed her shoulder and started pulling her toward the elevator, "We need to send the police back down here to investigate. We shouldn't be here," she was chanting.

"Where are they? Where's the other person? It's smaller than mine—I think… I think he must have had a…_No… _Please don't let it be true. He was a monster, but he would never lock up a _child?_"

"This was a bad idea," Emilie's therapist groaned as she pushed her patient into the elevator and willed it to move faster. Emilie was flushed and shaking.

"I don't care what you say," Emilie finally spoke, "I _hate _him. I regret marrying him. I regret saving his life."

"Just…" the therapist's voice quavered, "think about Adrien. Think about the good you brought into the world, despite Gabriel."

Emilie smiled weakly, "I brought him into the world, but for what? So he could be abused by his father? How do I know he wasn't the intended patient for that second cocoon?"

Out of good ideas, the therapist did the only thing she could think of—she wrapped her arms around Emilie's shaking frame and just held her softly until the elevator broke through the atelier floor and into sunlight once more.

"Maman?"

Emilie looked up from her therapist's shoulder. Adrien was there, and next to him was his girlfriend, Marinette. "Adrien! I d-didn't know you were here—" she sniffed. The therapist handed Emilie off to Adrien and bolted to alert the police about the second cocoon.

"Why did you go down without me? I thought we were going to face everything together."

Emilie walked to her son while wiping the tears from her face. "I just didn't want you to go down there without knowing what we might encounter." He opened his arms and the two embraced. Marinette patted his shoulder affirmingly. "Adrien, I never want you going down there, ok? We'll have someone come in and fill it all in and tear down the mansion; I never want you going down there."

"Maman," he whispered into her hair, "It's ok…"

"No, it's not ok!" she yelled. "He hurt so many people—worst of all, you. I hate him and I will never, ever forgive him!"

Adrien stroked his mother's hair. "Me neither. I'm angry too. He robbed me of two years with you. He tried to take everything from me, and almost succeeded. But you know what?"

"What?" she sobbed, placing her head on her son's shoulder.

"He also gave me Chat Noir. And he gave me Ladybug. He gave me my first few friends. He gave me a cause bigger than myself. He gave me courage, and strength, and true love. I hate the way he chose to do it, but I'm proud of who I became because of him."

She gazed into those blazing eyes, hugged him, and whispered, "I'm proud of you too, my beautiful ray of sunshine."

"But Maman, I need to thank you."

She looked up into his powerful green eyes—"What?"

"Thank you for saving his life. Without that, I wouldn't have become who I needed to be, to be able to save yours." Adrien kissed his mother softly on the forehead and squeezed her tightly until her shaking finally stopped, knowing that no matter what the outcome—no matter what happened to the mansion or to _Gabriel _brands, or what happened in the future, he and his mother would face it together.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

The alarm only buzzed twice before Adrien shut it off. "Plagg! Today's the day!" His kwami twitched an ear and buried his face back in the pillow, but Adrien didn't care. Nothing could bring him down today.

He was ready in record time, and soon found himself at the breakfast table with his mother. "Whoa, Adrien, slow down!"

"Can't—" Adrien smiled as he kissed her cheeks— "Gotta be early."

"Oh, that's right," she smiled. "Though I don't know how I could have forgotten, it's not like you've talked of anything else—" but Adrien wasn't really listening.

He shouldered his carefully prepared bag and raced down the stairs of their apartment and out the door to the Metro station. Even considering how much slower he was now that he didn't have a car and bodyguard at his disposal, he was so much happier with his newfound freedom that he did a little skip as he entered the train, then bit his lip as the familiar twang of guilt nipped at him from. He shouldn't be happy his father was dead.

"No," he whispered to himself, repeating the words of his therapist, "it's ok to feel joy again. You're not guilty." The courts even agreed. Gabriel Agreste's death was a tragedy of his own making. A few more steadying breaths and Adrien smiled again. It was getting easier to work through those momentary twangs of guilt. The panic attacks were harder to overcome, and nights were still rough, but even those were slowly healing.

The train arrived at his stop and he raced back into the morning light. The little bakery stood warm and inviting, and the tinkle the bell made as he pushed open the door always made him smile.

"Adrien! Good morning!"

"Hello, Tom!" he smiled, "Is she up yet?"

"Not yet. You might want to take some orange juice up with you," Marinette's father winked as he handed Adrien two glasses of juice and a plate of fresh pain-au-chocolat.

"Thank you, you're the best!" Adrien's head swam with the rich chocolate scent. "Oh yeah, and the other thing—"

"Don't worry. It's safe."

"Awesome."

Adrien shook Tom's flour covered hand and skipped upstairs, and chuckled when he heard Tom mutter, "I can't wait until he calls me 'Dad.'"

Adrien slowed on the final flight of steps, took a breath, and pushed the trap door open slightly. The dawn was breaking in full now, streaming pink rays through Marinette's windows. He padded inside and set the juice and pastries on her desk, then climbed the rest of the way to her loft. Marinette was not a neat sleeper—her bed was a jumble of blankets, her hair was a rat's nest, one foot was hanging off the edge—and Adrien loved it. Tikki must have sensed his presence, because she stirred first and blinked blearily. He flashed a devious grin at her. Tikki realized what Adrien was about to do and cried, "Wait!" just a fraction of a second too late. Adrien ran a single finger up the bottom of Marinette's exposed foot.

The jumble of blankets exploded in every direction, limbs were flailing, Marinette was screeching, and the offended appendage jerked upward and connected with Adrien's nose.

"Ouch!" he yelped as stars popped across his vision and his eyes flooded with water. "Dang, am I bleeding?"

"Adrien! Oh, I'm sorry!" Marinette fumbled, trying to climb out of bed but tripping over the blankets and crashing into him. He careened into the railing but caught her moments before tumbling down the stairs. "Sorry, sorry!" she apologized rapidly.

"No way, it's my own fault. I shouldn't have tickled you," he chortled.

"That's a good point. You really shouldn't have. What are you doing in my bedroom anyway?" she croaked, suddenly becoming very self-conscious of her hair and adorable Chat Noir pajamas.

Adrien checked his nose—it wasn't bleeding, but it stung like crazy—"I just wanted to be the first one to wish you Happy Birthday!"

"Oh!" her eyes popped open. "I thought we were going to have a party later—"

"Of _course _we're having a party later. Do you think I could get Alya to cancel her plans? Do you think I could prevent Jagged Stone's 'surprise appearance' that he keeps bragging about, even if I wanted to? I just… wanted a little alone time…" he unexpectedly felt sheepish. She really was adorable in those pjs, and his plan suddenly seemed terribly risqué. "I can go if you want to get ready or something…"

She pursed her lips, "You can stay on one condition," she mused.

"What's that?"

"You can't look nearly so perfect when I look like this," she teased, then reached up and scrambled his hair.

He laughed and let her tangle his mane. "Better?"

She looked over her masterpiece and sighed, "Not really. Now you look even _more _perfect, more like the boy I fell in love with twice."

He chuckled and kissed her nose, "You always look perfect to me."

She blushed and returned his kiss before he beckoned her downstairs. "Oh, that smells great!" she smiled at the pain-au-chocolat. "Hang on, I saved some cheese from last night for Plagg—" she tried, but Adrien caught her hand.

"Today, you're only allowed to serve others if you want to." She chewed her lip bashfully. "Also," he added, "Plagg found that cheese less than half a second after we entered your room. It's _long _gone."

She giggled and took a seat on the chaise. As the two shared the delicious pastries, Adrien marveled. When she caught him staring at her for the third time, she asked, "What is it? What's on your mind?"

He gave a little half-grin and swallowed, "We've been through so much together. We've seen each other at our very best and very worst, yet here we are, just sharing breakfast, and I don't think I've ever been happier."

She stroked his cheek softly, "Me too."

"I mean, I know it can't always be like this, and I don't expect it to. I know hard times will come again, but… well, your dad told me something once about love. He said it was built on trust and experience, and I think I'm starting to understand what he means."

She nodded. "When those hard times come, I'm excited to figure them out together."

He stole another kiss, this one longer and deeper. "Can I give you your birthday presents now?"

"Presents? Ugh," she moaned with a twinkle in her eye.

"Don't even start that," he teased. "You're the world's best gift giver. One day of the year, you have to let us peasants try to catch up."

She winked as he opened his messenger bag and extracted the portfolio. "Ok, so, this is kind of crazy, and it's ok if you don't feel comfortable. Seriously, you can say no and I won't be upset at all."

He handed the folder to her and she blinked curiously. She opened it and started reading through the information it contained. Adrien's stomach did backflips as she tried to figure out what he'd brought. "Wait," she paused, "are you serious? A job?"

He nodded, "Pending art school and that you want it and stuff—it's completely up to you."

"This is _huge_ Adrien. I mean, I'm still in Lycée, I've still got a year before University, then probably six to eight years before finishing the Master's Art program and…"

"And _Vanily-Agreste Design _will be there for you the entire way through. The board of trustees was more than happy to secure the paid internship, especially after everything you did for us during the rebranding. You helped all of us—and me especially—discover there's so much more than just a name, and making sure yours is well known throughout the industry is the least I can do."

A tear trickled down her cheek and Marinette beamed up at him. His heart swelled. "Of course," she cleared her throat, "I want to still field other offers, I want to have a normal University experience, but—thank you so much Adrien!" She launched herself into his lap and peppered him with kisses. He held her tight.

"I love you so much, Marinette."

"I love you too, Adrien."

It was with great effort that Adrien pulled back from Marinette's embrace. "I have one more gift, well, except all the sewing supplies I plan to thoroughly embarrass you with tonight—"

"Adrien!"

He laughed, "Close your eyes."

She scowled playfully, but obliged. He raced back to the trap door, "Ok, Tom, I'm ready—" and a moment later, Marinette's dad winked at Adrien, who cupped the tiny thing in his hands. Adrien snuck back to Marinette's side, opened his palms, and said, "You can look."

Her jaw dropped and her eyebrows scrunched up in excitement, "No way, you got me a hamster?"

She took the fluffy creature from Adrien's hands and let it nuzzle her cheek. It explored her fingers. Adrien gave it an enormous shell-on peanut from his pocket and the two laughed as it stuffed the thing in its mouth whole. "Your dad helped me set up a hamster fortress downstairs. He belongs to both of us, of course, and any time you need to leave town for—" he winked, "whatever reason, I get to be your official hamster-sitter."

"Oh Adrien," she sighed, in love with the white and brown little furball already.

"All he needs is a name," Adrien smiled.

She grinned that spectacular grin, rested her chin on his shoulder and looked up at Adrien with those dancing bluebell eyes, "I've got the perfect one. His name will be…"

~~~~~~The End~~~~~~

* * *

_**Author's note: **__And thus ends my big long epic headcanon adventure! I hope you liked it. It's been a lot of fun to write. Thank you so much for reading, for your comments and kind words, and support. I love hearing from each of you and hearing your theories and ideas as well. Have a wonderful day, whenever you read this, and keep on Miraculousing!_


End file.
